Stormseeker: Borrowed Destiny

Prologue: Cycle of Nightmares

---

My name is Lexen Chelseer. Well, my full name is Lexenmilot Skywalker Majere Renneck Chelseer Dragonblood, and my Elkandu title is "Stormseeker". But I'd generally rather just go by Lexen.

I was excited to come to Torn Elkandu at first. To learn about magic, the secrets of the universe. To become a powerful mage. An Elkandu, traveling from world to world, exploring and gaining knowledge from a million universes.

But everything changes in the blink of an eye. After a day of class, I'm heading for the Nexus to go home for the weekend.

A man in black robes is standing before me, in the midst of the rune-covered streets, backlit by the light of the Nexus and framed by its glowing obelisks.

"What have we here?" he says. "A little Chelseer bratling, unless I miss my guess. You have their look about you. Pale skin, black hair, unnaturally green eyes. But you don't have the ears. Have they been breeding with humans lately? Hah."

"I'm Lexen Chelseer. Who are you?" I ask. Something about him makes me very uneasy.

The man looks positively offended. "What, did they not tell you about me? Well, allow me to rectify that for you, then. I am Sedder the Shadow."

"Sedder?" I say incredulously. "But they told me you were exiled. They said you weren't supposed to come back here."

"And yet here I am," Sedder says, grinning wickedly at me. His eyes are like two black pits. If eyes could be said to be able to be evil, I'd say that Sedder's eyes are definitely evil.

"What do you want?" I ask. "When Hawthorne shows up, she'll kill you!"

Sedder laughs darkly. "They told you who I am, but not how I got exiled? Little bratling, last time I fought Hawthorne, I won."

"You... shit," I mutter.

"Tsk tsk, such language, what are you, ten, eleven?" Sedder says. "No matter. I'm here to take over Torn Elkandu and get my revenge upon those who humiliated me and exiled me. Slaughtering Hawthorne's entire family before I kill her slowly? Yes, that sounds good." He grins menacingly.

He means to kill me. No mercy. No compromise. I turn to run in a panic.

I don't get far. I hardly manage two steps. Dark tendrils made of pure shadow surround me and grab onto me, holding me in place. I can't move.

Blackness worms into me painfully, into my body, into my very soul. Blinding agony, as I feel my life draining out of me. My strength is leaving me. I'm dying...

This can't be happening. Am I going to die like this, helpless and afraid? No. No. Don't let it end like this!

Sedder's hideous laughter echoes in my ears as the world fades away.

---

My eyes snap open. Panting, staring at the ceiling. What happened? Oh, I'm in my bed in the School of Thought's dormitories, in Torn Elkandu. It was a nightmare. It was just a nightmare. But it felt so real. Still, it had to be just a nightmare, since I'm obviously still alive.

I get dressed, eat breakfast, and go to class, barely paying attention to the routine.

"Today we will be discussing the nature of the Ethereal Plane," says the teacher. I don't remember his name. He drones on and on about magical theory. This would be very fascinating subject matter, if there were a better teacher doing it.

But wait. I've already sat through this lesson before. It was all in my dream. Word for word, this very lecture. What in the Abyss? Am I having nightmares about boring lectures now, too?

When the teacher's back is turned, I quietly leave my seat and slip out of the classroom. I don't need to see his cosmological diagrams again.

Very confused, I head out to the Nexus. The massive teleportation device in the heart of Torn Elkandu, consisting of eight rune-covered pillars arranged in a circle. They say it can take you anywhere in the multiverse. Almost anywhere, at any rate.

But it's a very unstable device, and requires constant supervision. They didn't specify what would happen if it destabilized, but implied that it would probably be something very bad. I have to wonder why they couldn't have just made a device that's more stable to begin with and doesn't require someone watching it all the time. It seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

The one on duty at the Nexus at the moment is an auburn-haired elven woman with piercing silver eyes.

"Hello," she says to me. "Looking to go somewhere?"

"Not really," I say. "Not at the moment, anyway."

"Hmm. You're the Stormseeker, aren't you?"

"Yes," I say. "But you could just call me Lexen, you know."

She shrugs. "I am the Seeker. Or Keolah Kedaire, if you'd prefer."

"Why was I given the title 'Stormseeker'?" I ask.

"It's mostly a prophetic title," Keolah says. "That's how you're known in prophecies. Although it does relate to your primary talents and personality in some ways. Your primary talent is Lightning, after all."

"Right... like Sedder's title is 'Shadow', and he can manipulate shadows?" I say.

Keolah's expression darkens at the mention of Sedder's name, and she nods. "Indeed so. And my primary talent is for finding things. But it goes beyond mere abilities."

"I would have thought prophecies were nonsense, before today," I say. "Would it be possible for me to have a prophetic dream? Isn't my primary talent Lightning?"

Keolah frowns, and takes a closer look at me, seeming to look beyond me and peer into my very soul. "Hmm, a very interesting aura. Your primary talent is indeed Lightning, but your secondary talent is Time."

"What does that mean?" I wonder.

"It's very possible that you could, indeed, have prophetic dreams," Keolah says. "What, exactly, did you see?"

"Sedder came to Torn Elkandu to take over the place and kill people for fun," I say.

Keolah frowns deeply, her brow furrowing in worry. "Was there any indication as to when this might take place?"

"In about six hours," I say.

"Ah, fuck," Keolah murmurs. "Er, pardon my language."

"No sense in pardoning honesty," I say.

"Look, Lexen, I want you to go back to Wishingsdale and tell Hawthorne about what you saw," Keolah says. "And get her to bring in everyone. If Sedder and his Dark Elkandu do indeed show up today, we're going to be ready for them, and we're going to give them a fight."

I nod, and step into the Nexus. I don't need Keolah's help to calibrate the Nexus for my destination. I grew up in Wishingsdale. I can very much visualize it well enough to take me there.

When the teleportation mists fade away, I'm standing in front of the Chelseer estate. A large farmhouse situated on a hilltop, with stables and pastures in the back where horses are grazing. A picturesque image.

I head inside. I don't have a lot of time. I'm worried that even the best army the Elkandu can muster wouldn't be able to stop Sedder and his Dark Elkandu. But we have to try. It would be catastrophic if Torn Elkandu were to fall into those hands.

"You're back early," Hawthorne says upon seeing me. "I thought you'd still be in classes until this afternoon?"

Hawthorne is my great-grandmother, although she hardly looks like she's over eighty. Her black hair and bright green eyes don't show a trace of age, and her fair skin is still smooth and young as though she weren't a day over twenty. I wonder if it's because she's a full-blooded elf, or some Elkandu magic of some sort.

"Keolah sent me," I explain. "I had a dream. A prophetic dream. Sedder's coming to invade Torn Elkandu. Today. In less than six hours. She sent me to tell you to gather everyone you could to defend the Nexus."

"Sedder?" Hawthorn exclaims, clenching her fists. "I will kill him! Alright, Lexen. You stay here where it's safe. We'll take care of this."

Hawthorne goes off to gather up the rest of the adults on the estate. Feeling a little lost and confused as to what to do now, I settle in to the parlor to wait. I pick a book off the shelves and read absently, but my mind isn't really on the pages. I'm worried about what's happening in Torn Elkandu.

"What are you doing, Lexen?"

I look up. It's my cousins, Helga and Hilda. They're twin sisters, and a year younger than me. Aside from my mother, whose eyes are golden, they're the only Chelseers I know of whose eyes aren't green. Helga and Hilda both have blue eyes.

"Reading," I reply. "Waiting."

"Where did all the grown-ups go?"

"Torn Elkandu," I say. "I hope things are going well for them there."

They should be fighting as we speak, in fact. I put the book away. My hands are trembling. There's nothing I can do to help. Worrying won't change things.

"You seem awfully nervous."

"I--"

My words don't come out. Behind them, in the doorway, Sedder is standing, grinning broadly. How did he get in here? Damn it all, this place is supposed to be warded!

"Well, now, look at this," Sedder says. "Three little bratlings, all in a row. Are you siblings, or cousins? No matter. I'll take care of you, one by one."

"Sedder!" I cry. I glance around in a panic. There's nowhere to run. I could Recall back to the Nexus, but his Dark Elkandu have probably already taken control of it. Damn, damn, damn.

"You there, boy," Sedder says. "How would you like to watch your sisters suffer before they die slowly?"

I growl, and launch myself at him. It's hopeless, of course. Shadowy tendrils spring out of nowhere and hold me in place, as well as the twins. The twins. Screaming. They're nine, damn it! Nine! They shouldn't have to die like this!

"Fuck you, Sedder!" I yell at him.

No, no, no. This isn't happening. This can't be happening. I close my eyes, but I can't close my ears. I can't shut out the sound of their screams. Tears come to my eyes unbidden.

"Aw, they didn't take nearly as much as I hoped they might," Sedder says. "Ah, well. It's your turn, boy. Are you ready to die?"

"Fuck you," I reply. "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!"

"Such language," Sedder says mockingly. "Let's see how long you last? How that spirit of yours will hold out against life drain?"

The torment begins anew, just as it did last time. Strength leaving my body like a barrel with a leak in the bottom. If the tendrils weren't holding me up, I wouldn't be able to stand. I don't know if I screamed or not. But mercifully, everything fades soon enough.

---

I wake in a cold sweat. I sit bolt upright. I'm back in my bed in the School of Thought dormitory. Another nightmare? This one even worse than the last one. It's bad enough to see myself die, but to have to watch my cousins dying... and knowing that Hawthorne and the rest of my family probably didn't make it either... this is too much.

I hate seeing myself so weak and helpless. What can I do? I want to become the most powerful mage that ever lived. I want to protect those I care about. I want to shelter the weak and innocent from those that would harm them.

I find myself curled up in bed and crying into my pillow. Oh, Helga. Oh, Hilda. Never again. Never again, damn it. I'll become strong. Somehow.

I get up and wipe the tears away. This isn't going to help anything. Anger and regret, I have those in spades. But they alone won't let me stop one of the most powerful Elkandu ever to live.

Taking a deep breath, I stop to think about this latest dream. Prophecy? But why would I be having a prophecy in which I had a prophecy in which something bad happened, and then we tried to prevent it and something else bad happened anyway? I don't think prophecies are supposed to work like that.

I get dressed and go to eat breakfast. I don't even bother going to class. Instead, I just head straight out to the Nexus to talk to Keolah.

"Hello there," Keolah says. "Would you like to go somewhere?"

"I'd just like to ask you a few questions, Keolah," I say.

"Alright," Keolah says. "You're Lexen Chelseer, the Stormseeker, right?"

"That's right," I reply. "Keolah, my secondary talent is Time, isn't it? What sort of abilities fall under that?"

Keolah peers at me for a moment, and nods. "Yeah, you're a Time Mage, alright. It's a very rare talent. I've generally seen it come in two forms. One is prophecy, the ability to see future events that may occur. The other is chronomancy, the ability to manipulate time, by speeding things up or slowing them down."

Neither of those really sounds like what was happening to me. "Is it possible to have a prophecy within a prophecy?" I ask.

"Huh?" Keolah says, raising an eyebrow. "I've never heard of such a thing. What do you mean?"

"Say I had a prophetic dream," I say. "And in that dream, I had had a prophetic dream in which something bad happened, and then told someone about it, and then something bad happened to them."

Keolah rubs her temples. "Alright, the very idea of that just gives me a headache. No, I've never heard of anything like that happening before. Why do you ask?"

"Because I just had a dream like that," I say. "In the dream, I had a dream that Sedder came and killed everyone, so I told you about it, and you sent me off to bring in Hawthorne and everyone. But Sedder still killed everyone anyway."

"That... is very worrisome," Keolah says. "Shit... Did you see exactly what happened?"

"No," I reply. "I was back at Wishingsdale the second time. Where I was supposed to be safe. But Sedder came and killed me anyway. I assume that he already took over Torn Elkandu by that point by the time he bothered with me."

"I can't believe Sedder would be able to defeat all of us by himself," Keolah says. "I imagine he must have brought a number of his Dark Elkandu with him. And if Sardill was there, all bets are off."

"What can we do, Keolah?" I ask.

"I don't know," Keolah says. "If bringing in the cavalry didn't help, and he knows where the Chelseers live and can get through those wards... I don't know what we can do."

"And I don't understand that dream," I say. "It clearly wasn't chronomancy, but it doesn't fit into the way you described prophecy, either."

"There's another, even rarer, possibility," Keolah says. "Time travel. But it's only a legend. I've never actually encountered anyone who had that power. I don't even know how it might work. Legend has it that the Gates of Time can send someone through time. But nobody even knows where they are, never mind how they might work."

"So is there any way to find out for certain what it might be or how it works?" I ask. "Any tests or experiments that might be done to figure it out?"

"Hmm," Keolah says. "You say you had two dreams. Or a dream within a dream, whatever. Was there anything in common between them?"

"They both ended in me dying," I say. "And immediately after dying, I woke up again in the bed I'd slept in last night."

"It's not much to go on, but I could speculate that if you do have a time travel power, it appears to trigger on your own death, and send you back to the last time you slept?" Keolah says.

"Forgive me if I'm not particularly eager to die to test that," I say.

Keolah chuckles softly. "Understandably. But if you're right about what's about to happen, it might just happen again anyway."

"No kidding," I say. "It would really suck to keep repeating the same day, if that's what's going on. Sedder's due to show up here in less than six hours."

"Lexen..." Keolah says, "I know this is a lot to ask of you, but I'd like you to stay here in Torn Elkandu. It's taking a big risk on a guess, but if it works, we'll be able to find out just who Sedder is invading Torn Elkandu with."

"Alright," I say. It's a risk, like she says. I would, without a doubt, die horribly again, even if she's right and I come back. But at least it's doing something. At least it might be helpful somehow.

I take up a position in a nearby building, in the inn called the Crux in a room overlooking the Nexus. From here I'll have a clear view of anyone coming and going, without making myself an immediate target. I'll be able to see everything that happens.

And then, right on time, the runes on the Nexus flare to life. A bright cyan glow and mist filling the circle. There's Sedder, and several others I don't immediately recognize. And another man in black hooded robes who glances directly up at my window. My blood freezes in my veins. He knows I'm watching?

I have to admire Keolah's courage as she stands her ground and refuses to abandon her post, even in the face of certain death. A good way to die, perhaps, but it's still death. At least she could fight back. Watching this wasn't nearly as painful as what Sedder did to my cousins.

The hooded man enters the Crux and comes upstairs, straight to my room. Well, here it comes, I'm about to die again. Please be right, Keolah. Don't let our deaths be in vain.

"You won't win like this, Stormseeker," the hooded man says.

"Who are you?" I ask. Maybe I can stall him for information before he kills me, at least.

"I am the Dark Knight," he replies. Shit, it's Sardill. The one even Keolah doesn't want to ever have to go up against.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask.

"I am the Catalyst," Sardill says. "I am the Bringer of Change. And the world must change. If nothing is done, the Elkandu will grow stagnant and complacent. They will bring their doom down upon themselves."

"Killing people won't make them change," I say. "All you wind up with then is corpses!"

"Oh, but it will," Sardill says. "But you are not in a position where you can understand my purpose. Try again, Stormseeker."

He raises a black-gloved hand, and in an instant, the world is gone.

---

I wake again, blinking. What in the Abyss just happened? Oh, I'm back in my bed again. Sardill just killed me. At least he made it quick. I barely even noticed it happen.

Try again, Stormseeker.

He knows. He knows about my power. I didn't stay dead. I definitely went back in time. Keolah was right. And I'm grateful for that, because I don't want to die yet. Not when there's so much to learn and so much to be done.

I quickly get dressed and eat breakfast, then go to the Nexus. I must speak with Keolah.

"Keolah," I say as I approach, before she can say anything. "I need to talk to you."

"What's up? Stormseeker, is it?" Keolah says.

"Good enough," I say, shrugging. "Keolah, I believe I have time travel powers. I just came back from my third run through today."

"Time travel?" Keolah says, raising an eyebrow. "Seriously? You'd be the first person I've encountered with that power, if that's the case."

"I'm sure of it this time," I say. "You weren't certain last time, but third time's the charm, they say. I've just died three times, and woke up this morning like it was nothing."

"What happened?" Keolah says. "Tell me everything."

I quickly get her up to speed. Sedder killing me, killing me again, and then Sardill killing me.

"Sardill's coming with them?" Keolah says. "Shit, no wonder we lost. Er, pardon the language."

"I think we've more to worry about than who we cuss in front of," I point out.

"If Sardill's with them, we don't stand a chance," Keolah says. "The only reason we've held out as long as we have is Sardill's apparent disinterest in getting directly involved in things."

"He said a lot of very confusing things before he killed me," I say. "And I think he knew exactly how my talent worked."

Keolah nods. "Nobody's quite sure just how powerful Sardill really is. He rarely flaunts any great displays of magic. But when he does, he could swat all of us away by hardly lifting a finger. He's on a whole different level. He's as far above us as we are above the mensch."

I'm not much above a mensch at the moment, myself. I don't have much magic to speak of, that I know how to use. But that will change. And no non-magical person could have come back from the dead three times without even knowing what they were doing.

"Is there anything we can do?" I wonder.

"We could surrender, and hope he doesn't kill us anyway," Keolah says. "Not a very good option, but one that might just work if everything else fails. I think our best bet is to evacuate Torn Elkandu and the Chelseer Estate."

"Where will we go?" I ask.

"I'll figure something out," Keolah says. "You go to Wishingsdale and bring your family here. I'll see what I can do on this end."

"Alright," I say. I step into the Nexus and activate the magic to go back to my home village, hoping that things will work out better this time, somehow, even if it means running and hiding. There's no shame in fleeing from an enemy there's no hope of victory against.

"Hey, Lexen," Hawthorne greets me inside the Chelseer family farmhouse. "Back early?"

"Hawthorne," I say. Funny, I've always called her by her name. She doesn't take kindly to being refered to as "great-grandmother", as she says it makes her feel old. "Keolah sent me. We need to evacuate the estate."

"What?" Hawthorne says. "What's going on?"

"Sardill's on the move," I say. "I-- well, it's hard to explain, and there's not much time. But we don't stand a chance against Sardill. Let's just get everyone and meet Keolah back in Torn Elkandu. She said she'd have a plan."

"Alright," Hawthorne says dubiously.

We quickly gather up the family. The twins, Helga and Hilda. My grandmother, Keliole. The twins' mother, Thelsa.

"Where's Mom?" I wonder.

"Anara's not here," Hawthorne says. "I don't know where she went. What a time to pick to be out doing something. Let's get this lot back to Torn Elkandu and see if Keolah can find her."

The six of us Recall back to the Nexus. I'm already feeling pretty tired, unfortunately. I haven't even been up for an hour, though. No, I suppose I've technically been awake for nineteen hours. If it's counting that, I suppose that might explain why I certainly feel like I've been awake for nineteen hours.

"Ah, good, there you are," Keolah says. A number of people have already started gathering around the Nexus. The students and teachers in the school, the shopkeepers from around the city, all the various mages who live in Torn Elkandu.

"Keolah, Anara wasn't around," Hawthorne says. "Can you find her?"

"Alright," Keolah says. "It'll take a bit longer for everyone to gather, anyway. Let's see..."

Her eyes glaze over and she stares off into space for several long moment. This is her Seeking power, the ability to find almost anything. It's said that if Keolah can't find something, it probably doesn't exist. The other mages continue to approach the Nexus as she works.

"Found her," Keolah says. "Bah, shouldn't have worried. She's off on a remote world with no other Elkandu presence. If it weren't me, nobody else would have found her. She'll be as safe as we will."

"I'll take your word on that," I say. "Where are we going?"

"Someplace the Elkandu haven't been before," Keolah says. "If we're not safe there, we won't be safe anywhere."

She starts sending the mages through the Nexus in groups of twelve, the most it can handle at one time. The process goes quickly enough, however. Finally, the last group leaves and I'm left with Hawthorne and Keolah remaining.

"Won't the Nexus destabilize without someone watching it?" I ask.

"Unfortunately, it won't explode or anything in my absense," Keolah says. "It'll just take them some time to recalibrate again. It's a pain in the ass to do it and it takes several unbroken hours of complete concentration. Let's go."

The three of us step into the Nexus, and the mists take us away. When they clear this time, we're in a cave. There's no telling what world we're on. It could be anywhere. Just an ordinary, generic cave lit by mage-light from the Elkandu crowded around inside of it.

"You could have picked a better spot," complains a dwarf with a shaggy blond beard.

"You're a dwarf, Scregor," Hawthorne says. "I'd have thought you'd like caves."

"Yeah, but it's such a tiny cave," Scregor says. "There's hardly room in here for all of us. And it's such low-quality rock, too!"

"Oh, shut up, Scregor," Hawthorne says, rolling her eyes.

"Don't worry," Keolah says. "Hopefully, we won't be here long."

The Elkandu refugees have laid out bedrolls and even magical beds around the cave. Tired as I am, I decide that it's a good time to get some rest. I'll either die or I won't, but I'll collapse if I keep up with these loops with no real sleep in between.

---

I wake to the sounds of screaming and explosions. I open my eyes cautiously, but I don't know if I dare move from my bedroll. Shit, they found us. How did they find us?

"Sedder!" Hawthorne shouts amidst fire and smoke. "I will kill you!" The glowing, rune-covered greatsword Zarnith is in her hand. It's been passed down in our family from generation to generation.

"You couldn't kill me before, Hawthorne, and you won't kill me today," Sedder retorts.

Black fire shoots from his fingertips toward Hawthorne, but it's deflected with a golden shield around herself. It doesn't take long for the shield to buckle, however. Hawthorne is blown away under the force of Sedder's power. How is he so strong that he can go toe to toe with someone wielding Zarnith, and actually overpower them rather than simply outmaneuvering them?

"Stormseeker, do you plan to die in bed this time?" Sardill says, looking down at me.

"What's the point?" I reply. "I have no hope of fighting you."

"You don't get it, do you, fool," Sardill snaps. "Try again, Stormseeker."

He points a finger at me, and it's over.

---

I wake up in my bed once again, and sigh. At least I'd gotten a good night's sleep before dying that time. That's not really much of a consolation, however.

I get up and get dressed, and go to have some breakfast. As tasty as pancakes are, I'm getting a little sick of them. I really need to get out of this day.

I go back to the Nexus to see Keolah again. Maybe she'll have some answers for me. "Keolah, I'm a time traveler. I just finished my... fourth loop of today. Sedder and Sardill are about to invade Torn Elkandu in six hours. And evacuating the city didn't work. They found us anyway. How did they find us anyway?"

Keolah blinks at me, quickly absorbing my words. "You... wait... what? Shit." She composes herself a bit, rubbing her temples. "They... they might have a Seeker. Or Sardill might have made a Seeker, or an object that finds things. I don't know."

I sigh deeply. "And how is Sedder so powerful? He punched right through Hawthorne's shields! She had Zarnith, he shouldn't be able to beat her in raw power!"

Keolah frowns. "You're right about that. Sedder shouldn't match up to Zarnith. His advantage is that he's cunning, and Hawthorne doesn't know what the word 'subtlety' means. Maybe Sardill augmented his powers somehow..."

I sigh again. I'm frustrated. Very frustrated. "Sardill seems to know exactly what my power is. He keeps telling me to try again. Argh, what does he want?"

"I don't know," Keolah says. "I gave up on understanding Sardill years ago. But if he's involved, there's not much we can do. The only one I know of that's capable of matching him is Shazmar... and he never helps."

"There has to be something we can do," I insist. "I refuse to just accept that the situation is hopeless! Can't you just, destroy the Nexus or something, if need be?"

Keolah shakes her head. "The Nexus has been around longer than any of us, maybe even longer than Sardill. There's nothing I could really do to it to permanently damage it. And even if I did, any Traveler can still do the same thing, anyway."

I sigh. "I wish there were something I could do."

Keolah fixes me with a firm silver stare. "You might be the only one capable of stopping this, Stormseeker."

"Me?" I say. "But I hardly even know how to use the Nexus! My only salvation is my apparent inability to stay properly dead!"

"That's a pretty big advantage if you ask me," Keolah says.

I take a deep breath, and sigh. "You're right. I know. I have to do something. Maybe, just maybe, they won't notice if one little 'Chelseer brat' is missing. Sedder didn't even know my name. Sardill... I don't even know what he's playing at."

"He's pretty incomprehensible in the best of times," Keolah says. "Don't worry too much about it."

"He did encourage me to try again," I say. "So maybe he doesn't have it out for me specifically. I don't know. I have to believe that I'm not just going to keep living for six hours and then getting inevitably killed no matter what I do. That would, in short, suck."

"Perhaps he only killed you because you weren't doing what he wanted you to do," Keolah suggests. "Whatever that might be."

"I'm going to have to work under the assumption that there's something I can do to avoid dying," I say. "Perhaps if I go to some other world, for instance, that isn't Lezaria or one of the other worlds the Elkandu have had much dealings with."

Keolah nods. "That might just work. But where would you go?"

"I don't know," I say. "Maybe someplace where I can learn magic and become powerful..."

"Powerful enough to stand against Sardill?" Keolah says dubiously.

"It's a longshot, I know," I say. "And it would take years, decades, if not centuries, to get to that point. But if I can do it... if I can do it, maybe then I could save everyone."

"Maybe that's what Sardill really wants," Keolah says, sighing. "How do you stand against a god? Alright, Stormseeker. I'll find you someplace you can learn magic. And then when Sardill shows up... I'll try diplomacy, I suppose. It's worth a shot. If I survive, I'll send you a message by the end of the day."

"It's the best hope we have at the moment," I say with a sigh. I really ought to stop sighing so much. I'm just so damned frustrated. Sedder's powerful, but he's just an Elkandu. A group of other Elkandu could beat him, under normal circumstances, even if they couldn't one on one. But Sardill?

"Here's some places you could go," Keolah says. "If you want a more specific search, let me know, but these looked like good, general magic schools at a glance."

Images float in the air before me, each with their own labels telling their name and the designation of the world they're on. There are castles and towers, and school buildings made of wood, or metal, or stone, beside lakes, within cities and forests. There's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Jedi Academy of Dantooine, entirely too many Towers of Magi, Sorcery, Wizardry, and the like...

I'll just pick someplace that looks good and go. I'll find out in a few hours if I'm actually going to survive the day this time...

"How about this one?" I say to Keolah, pointing at one of the images in the list. A large castle beside a lake. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Hmm, the world is designated Wizarding Earth," Keolah says. "That's pretty generic. They must not have a proper name for their world. Alright, I'll calibrate the Nexus for there. I'll set you down in Hogsmeade, the village outside of the school."

I have to admit that I'm nervous about this all. Here I am, heading off into territory unfamiliar even to the Elkandu, and it might not even make a bit of difference in the long run, or even the short. But it's worth a shot. The worst that'll happen, most likely, is Sardill will show up and tell me to try again. And I'd rather be killed by Sardill than Sedder, if I really have to die.

"Alright, the Nexus is calibrated for you," Keolah says. "Just remember, don't Recall back here unless you receive word that it's safe. If you don't hear anything... you're going to have to assume that we're all dead and act accordingly."

I nod grimly and step toward the Nexus. "May your magic never falter, Keolah."

"And may yours find its favor," Keolah replies the other half of the traditional Elkandu parting.

The glowing mists of the Nexus take me away to another world...