The children looked towards the gate, standing in front of the blur of civilization behind those gates, was a singular figure. It was a boy, dressed much like a grown adult. He had a royal blue trench coat on, covering a layer of formal apparel. His flaming red hair was curly and he had piercing blue eyes that studied them briefly. He was somewhere in their age range yet something about him emanated an aura of experience. How James thought of that, he didn’t know, it was just a feeling. He walked towards them and greeted them.
“Well, well! Finally here, huh? What took you so long?” he grinned, an obvious English accent in his voice.
“Torture,” Zachary said.
“That means school,” Daniel added.
The red-headed boy laughed, “Ah, yes, school. By the way, I do hope the book-fairies I sent you helped. Very lucky I found those books, otherwise I would have sent you lot pixies. Trust me, two VERY different creatures.”
“Ah, I nearly forgot. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Hermeshire, Elroy Hermeshire, Athens Elroy Hermeshire,” he replied, “you all are?”
They said their names.
“Well, actually already knew your names but that’s alright. Anyways, I had a feeling you were smart enough to find the Porte Library, very nice! You know, at first, I almost sent you to Stonehenge,” he scoffed, “yeah right, Socrates!”
“Sent? Like, set up? You mean like staged? Like controlled? Wait, mind contr-'' Zachary repeated.
“Yeah, I sent an elf to place those books there. To the 3 of you, he placed it in that pirate cove you discovered because, well, to put it bluntly, you guys are obsessed with that cliff. And for Sarah, I placed it in that library you always visit.”
“You watched us?” Sarah asked, her tone tensing, “that’s just weird.”
“No, it’s not like that…Well, uh- it’s a complicated matter. Though I leave the espionage to Socrates, he asks me to check on you all from time to time. Just to make sure you haven’t been eaten by a massive snake with fifty heads.”
“I have around 32 questions to ask,” Daniel stated.
“Whoa. Trust me, Dan, you’ll have those questions answered soon. For now, I think we should just enter and head to our assigned destination first,” Athens reassured him, “sounds good?”
James looked at the others. Though they looked terribly confused, they nodded. Athens tapped the book that opened the gate in the first place and the drawing started to vanish. With that, he lead them into the magical world, the gates closing behind them.
Once the gates fully closed, they looked around.
It was magnificent. James had seriously thought by ‘magical world’, they meant a world where everyone lives in tulip flowers and mushrooms and stuff like that. But he was completely wrong. In fact, he could barely tell the difference between their world and this one. Well, not really. They had buildings, people holding suitcases, some old-looking cars and buses, even some telephone boxes. But what differentiated this world with their own was the fact that there were magical creatures everywhere. From trolls in cloaks to pixies in bowler hats, they had it all.
The place was designed in Napoleonic-era style except for the magical touches. James spotted a man that was reading a newspaper while a cup of coffee floated by him, jumping and swerving from people around him. He also saw a telephone box’s telephone cable fighting an annoyed-looking man who probably didn’t have any more coins left to spare. Then there were the two suns. James didn’t know how to feel about that but Daniel, on the other hand, looked outraged.
However, James’ moment of awe was cut short by a sudden, stabbing pain in his stomach.
“MY GOD!” James groaned, nearly collapsing on the spot.
His surroundings had started to blur and he could hear a ringing in his ears. The stabbing pain turned into a jolt and he could feel his entire body trembling under an unknown force.
“Hey, uh, you alright?” Athens asked him, frowning a bit, “don’t worry, the feeling won’t last linger.”
“Man, you don’t look too concerned,” James complained, his words trembling along with his body.
“I mean it happens a lot,” Athens said, handing him a mint, “Just eat this, it eases the pain and its strawberry flavored, your favorite. This kind of feeling happens when, you know…”
Athens paused.
“Where we’re headed, someone much better than me should be able to explain it to you,” he said, patting James on the back. “I don’t think you should hear it from me.
FIrstly, it turns out, Athens was right about the ‘happens a lot’ part. When James checked on his brothers and Sarah, they were also in pain. But when he looked closer, they were only grasping their stomachs and their bodies showed no signs of trembling. That intrigued him and he knew it intrigued Athens as well because he noticed him glancing at him every once in a while. Secondly, only his family knew strawberry was his favorite flavor. How did Athens find out about that? He probably knew and did not like it.
Athens continued leading them down the street. James looked around, the majority of the people walking were humans but with some unusual traits and culture. A lot of them used suits with bright colors instead of plain black and white. They also carried around sticks which she assumed could only be wands. He noticed a man was down the street, his hand wrapped around a pole next to the door of a bus and cried, “Next stop, Watford!”
“We’re in London?” Daniel asked Athens.
“Yep,” Athens said brightly, “the Medeis version of London, of course.”
Zachary was too busy looking at an interesting billboard on top of a store that read “Tired of Getting Annoyed by Your Parents?” to wonder what Medeis meant. He chuckled to himself. He’d love to check that place out. Unfortunately, since his attention was drawn to the billboard, he did not pay attention to where he was going and accidentally bumped nose-first into what he thought was a wall.
Zachary grumbled to himself and slowly got up. When he saw what he actually bumped into, he gasped. It was a cyclops. The cyclops’ one eye glared at him, but aside from that, he did not look like some ferocious beast. The cyclops was wearing a black and white suit, with a bowler hat to top it off.
“Oh, hello there, mister. So sorry I bumped into you, I was distracted by a…cool-looking poster.”133Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR9SinG9GgL
133Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC9QnBksxOb
The cyclops grunted in annoyance.
“Hey, you know it’s kinda ironic how I have two eyes, you have one, and I’m the one who wasn’t looki-”
Athens kicked Zachary in the shin. Zachary decided it was best to shut up. Athens pulled out a coin and gave it to the cyclops with a forced smile, the cyclops didn’t smile back.
“Pay attention to where you’re going next time,” Athens warned him, “and what the hell was that I have two eyes, you have one eye thing?”
“What? When I’m in a stressful situation, words just rush out of my mouth,” Zachary protested.
***
They kept on walking down the street, Zachary careful not to bump into anyone else, until they reached the entrance to an ominous alleyway, which to James’ surprise was where they were headed. After a few turns in the alley, they reached an old-looking and probably illegal pub. After a few seconds, Athens knocked on the door. A few seconds later, the door opened with a bang, the metal handle of the door clashing against the stone walls. On the doorway was a troll with green skin and pimples everywhere, wearing a white undershirt covered with a black jacket and large jeans.
“Whas’ vee pass’vord,” the troll asked, “oh, vat a surprise! I neva expected v’you to come back here Avens”
“Password is Olden Borake,” Athens said, staring into the troll’s eyes. “And when I have business, I go anywhere.”
“A’ight, v’you may go in,” the troll said, heading back into the pub.
“Thank you,” Athens said.
“Uh, Athens, I don’t think we’re supposed to go in there…” Daniel stated, “nor should you.”
“Oh don’t worry, trolls don’t kill unless…” Athens said but trailed off, “unless they just have no respect for the law.”
Phew, James thought.
“Not only that,” Daniel reminded, “we’re children, that’s a pub.”
Athens smirked.
“Well, trolls are rule-breakers. Besides, there’s something I need to take in there, so come on, if anything happens to you I’ll be there to protect you.” Athens said.
Athens walked into the pub and led the rest inside. People, trolls and other magical creatures were everywhere, they all looked like they either had a very bad day or were born with frowns nailed to their faces. The pub had a horrible stench attached to it, the bar was as dirty as a truck after riding on mud and the leather seats all had ripped patches scattered around them. Sarah’s face contorted in disgust.
“Why did that troll say he never thought you would come here again?” Sarah asked, ignoring the loud sniggering and sneering of the people and creatures around her. “You don’t-you know…”
“What?! ‘Course I don’t! I’m fourteen! Sarah, I once came here for-” Athens stopped mid-sentence and cleared his throat awkwardly, “…for some duties that have been given to me that are confidential.”
Who was this guy? He clearly has been on missions before, James thought. Though that was cool, he wondered who would ever hire a child to go do these “duties”. Athens sat them down around a small table.
“Wait here,” he said. “I just need to take that something I was talking about. Be right back.”
With that, Athens dissapeared into the pub. For a while, the children began to converse, talking about what they saw along the road here and how all this magic was crazy. Then they came to the subject of Athens.
“Athens is a pretty cool guy,” Zachary said, his eyes stuck on a jukebox that made the glasses on nearby tables dance to the tune. “I’m pretty sure he’s some sort of agent, you know?”
“Right?” James said.
“He is pretty cool,” Daniel said. “Excited to see if he knows any cool spells.”
“He’s also kinda cute,” Sarah chimed in.
“Thanks Sarah,” Athens came. “I try my best.”
Her cheeks instantly turned red and she smiled awkwardly, making the brothers laugh.
“That was fast,” Daniel commented.
“Told you it wouldn’t be long,” he grinned, raising his hand which now held a brown suitcase. “Now, come on, let’s get out of here.”
As they began to walk out of the pub, James’ ears were momentarily deafened by the sound of a booming laughter. He looked over his shoulders and realized it came from a troll.
“And v’you know what I said? Go vind v’yourself some real cash, that amount can’t even be used to buy my socks!” a troll said.
After that came another roar of laughter. James didn’t know why they found that funny until he saw golden rings all around the troll’s fingers, three golden teeth and several chain necklaces. That guy was rich, James thought. The troll was big and pimpled, and had the biggest mouth out of all of the trolls. It was obvious, they’re faking their laughter. They passed them without caring when-
“Hey, vas’ not wha’ I as’kd fo,” the big troll said, slamming the aluminum cup off of the tray a little fairy was holding.
The fairy was small and measly, though big enough to be able to hold a metal cup, his clothes looked like a potato sack turned into pitiful clothes and he had very pointy ears. Borake then slapped the little fairy, causing him to spiral out of control in the air. This only made the trolls laugh harder. James realized Sarah’s jaw had clenched.
“I want to strangle that idiot troll,” she whispered furiously to James.
“Yeah, but don’t,” James said, knowing she was the type of person to do so.
“Oh, I think I will.”
As she began to advance, Athens grabbed her by the hand, forcing her to stay.
“Sarah, no,” Athens said firmly. “Standing up to the fairy will do no good. Borake is far worse when he’s mad.”
James felt bad for the fairy. He could see him weeping on top of a hanging shelf with more poorly dressed and dirty fairies comforting him. He imagined how furious the book fairy would be when she found out one of her kind was being mistreated.
Sarah hesitated. She relaxed her body when she realized Athens was right. Angering a troll would lead to nothing but broken bones.
“Now come on, before he notices us-“
“Avens?” a deep, gurgling voice called.
“Damn it,” Athens muttered under his breath, “why, universe, why?”
“Hey, Borake,” Athens said with a reluctant smile. “How’s it going, pal?”
Borake reared his ugly head back in Athens’ direction and smiled a hideous, golden-toothed smile. The troll stood up from the circular sofa he was sitting on, revealing that his undershirt was way too small for him.
“Hello Avens,” the troll sneered. “Last time v’you came, v’you lied to Borake! Borake doesn’t vorget easily vittle boy!”
“Boss, show ve little boy v’your strength!” one of them said, “ain’t no way he can beat you up this time!”
“V’your right Veron,” Borake growled, he turned back to Athens. “V’your not scared, right Avens?”
Athens pushed the children to his back, shielding them from the ogre. James felt a bit attacked, but a part of him knew Borake would absolutely obliterate him so he gave a mental ‘thank you’ to Athens.
“Borake, Borake, come on now, we don’t seriously have to fight, right? How about we forget this with a little present, huh? How’s that sound?” Athens reasoned.
“No, no, Athens. Bribery voesn’t work on Borake,” Borake said, flexing his biceps. Two of Borake’s henchmen had reached the door, destroying all hope of escaping.
Athens signalled them to get away. They slowly headed to the back of the pub, watching at a troll-free distance. James glanced at the fairies and tried to silently tell them to run…or fly away.
“Guys, I don’t wanna be a jerk but, you really think Athens will survive this one?” Zachary asked, “ready to make bets?”
“Look Borake, we’re in some important business and we really have to go.” Athens said impatiently.
“No,” Borake refused.
“Borake…” Athens said slowly.
Too late. Borake had yelled something in what James guessed was Latin and pounced on Athens. How a million-pound troll was able to jump that high, James didn’t know, but he didn’t have time to wonder about that. Athens was about to be turned into a teen-boy-pancake and it was going to happen quickly. James closed his eyes, waiting to hear a big thump on the floor. But that didn’t happen. James opened his eyes and was marvelled at what he was seeing.
Somehow, Athens was on the floor, crouching, untouched and still three-dimensional, whereas Borake was in the air, blue as an icicle and frozen in time, breaking the laws of physics. James knew that was going to anger Daniel.
“Boss?” one of the trolls said blankly, looking at his floating leader. “V’you okay?”
Some of the trolls on the tables had their faces contorted and were beginning to stand up. Only now did the fairies get James’ message. They did not leave, however, that easily. They first went over to their abusive boss and began shrieking squeakily, kicking and punching him with their tiny fists and feet. James couldn’t help but laugh.
“Come on, we need to get out of here,” Athens said hurriedly, pushing them further behind the pub.
“HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!” Zachary exclaimed as they ran.
“Magic and beautiful, beautiful luck.”
A few seconds later, they reached a room with a door to the storage room on the other side.
“What are we doing here?” Sarah yelled.
“Just trust me!”
The room had an awful stench and was very unclean, they did not care, though, as they found it better to walk through a putrid room, following Athens, than face angry, probably man-eating trolls. Athens tapped on the storage room door with his a wand and muttered:
“Mutatio.”
The gaps around the door shone for a split-second. Once it stopped, Athens opened the door that for some crazy reason, led to a supposedly underground tunnel. Magic never ceased to surprise James. Athens pushed them in and just as one of Borake’s henchmen reached for the door, Athens slammed it shut, causing the trolls to crash into the door, headfirst.
To the trolls, when they looked through the broken door, there was no tunnel on the other side, instead, there was only a damp room filled with stacked up barrels and crates of drinks.
**
Few minutes later, they were walking down the tunnel, which they realized was a sewage tunnel. It was fairly big, with dim, circular lights spread evenly throughout the tunnel. The water was shallow, only enveloping the bottom of their shoes. No one dared speak to Athens, he looked quite disappointed. Walking in a silence only interrupted by the light sploshing of their steps.
“You look mad,” Zachary finally said.
Athens looked at him, “Ya’ think?”
“At Borake?” Zachary suggested.
“And Socrates,” Athens added.
“Who’s Socrates?” Daniel asked.
Athens sighed, “He’s the guy that sent me to get you, he told me to take the go through the pub to multi-task two missions of his. I warned him against it but all he insisted on it. And then there’s Borake. He was, well, Borake for goodness sake.”
They spent the following minutes talking to him and asking questions about Borake. Turns out, he was the chieftain of a troll tribe and Athens had done something that must’ve angered him, though what that was, he did not tell them. Then there were also their questions.
“Why does this Socrates guy want us?” James asked.
Athens didn’t respond. For a few, very long minutes, silence broke once more. Eventually, Athens answered.
“Look. I work as a private messenger for Mr Elliot. Socrates is my friend. We were both assigned different roles in service to him. Socrates is the man behind the plan while I work in the field. It’s not Socrates that wants you, it’s Mr Elliot. I can’t tell you why he wants you lot right now, trust me when I say this, there are ears and eyes everywhere. All I can say is that when us magical folk, especially people like Mr Elliot, need you humans for help, it’s gotta be something big.”
James directed his interest to his feet, walking along the wet, concrete floor of the tunnel. Anxiety had risen in his stomach. Something big, James repeated in his mind. What’s that supposed to mean? By how Athens said it and how he said “eyes and ears everywhere”, James knew something was wrong. “Something big” was not going to refer to “something pretty”.
Finally, Athens came to a halt beside a ladder. Zachary tripped on his own foot. As he got up, Athens started talking.
“Alright, our destination is right up here, but, there’s a BUT (Zachary chuckled.). It is not our final destination; it simply will take us there in a very fast way. Now I don’t want any of you to say a word to anyone, if anyone asks where you come from just don’t answer, either try to redirect the person’s attention or just completely ignore them. If you see trouble, do try to avoid getting involved. Understood?” he said.
They all nodded.
Athens ordered them to climb up the ladder, waiting for everyone to climb up first before climbing up himself.
“Push it open,” he instructed, his voice echoing from the floor of the sewer.
Daniel, who was the first to climb the ladder, obeyed. He pushed it open gently and scrambled outside. The rest came out soon after.
When they got out, they squinted their eyes, their corneas adjusting to the sudden change in the intensity of light around them. Once their sight came back to them, they saw where they were.
They were in a very large building at least a football field wide…with doors everywhere. The shape of the room was very similar to the Porte Library. But instead of having circular walls, it was in the shape of a giant sphere, half of it, like a dome. The entire building wasn’t entirely closed. There were stripes of sky on every layer which made it look like it was a ball that had been scratched by cats here and there, making it look more unique and artistic.
People were here and there, bringing keys, unlocking doors and entering them. James spotted a man holding a golden key. He inserted the key into a keyhole and when he opened the door, it revealed the inside of an office, he entered and closed the door. When another person used the exact same door, it led to a house.
“What?” he muttered to himself until a thought came to him, this would be very useful for school. With this, he could escape both bullies and presentations.
“Where are we?” Daniel asked.
“We are in Arachne’s Threshold,” Athens answered, “one of the biggest means of transportation in England that can be used to teleport to and fro. Now come on, and remember, talk to no one.”
They passed through the crowds. The same type of people they had seen in the streets were here. People looked very busy, going in and out of doors, supposedly to go off to work. They passed a group of marching students, all wearing black robes with the coat of arms of a queen bee.
“Lemonade! Lemonade! Come get your lemonade!” a winged-elf shouted, flying above the crowd, Daniel looked up and grinned.
“Ma’am, would you like to buy this Truth Seeker for only 5 Aurum?” an old witch asked a middle-aged woman, it will reveal one’s deepest secrets…”
“Don’t believe ‘em,” Athens said, breaking Zachary’s enthusiasm, “bunch of fakes, those Truth Tellers. Legitimate Truth Tellers should be much more expensive.”
Zachary would have bought that right there if he wasn’t being “supervised” by Athens. They kept walking until they reached a staircase. It spiraled around the walls of the dome, passing by multiple floors, eventually stopping at the top. They climbed until the second floor and went along the narrow path attached to the side of the wall. The floors did not cover the entire area of the dome, they were just rings that went along the side of the walls, where the countless doors rested. The outer area of the floors had railings to protect the visitors from falling down. This ensured that the beauty of the dome was still visible and not blocked by closed and floors.
James dragged his hands against the railing as he walked, peering down at the crowded first floor until they finally reached a yellow door, its door frame white. As Athens dug into his pockets, an elf came by and tugged at Sarah’s shirt. She turned her head around and looked down.
“Hello miss! Say, do you think you might be interested in these miniature magic carpets?”
“Um…”
“You look like a nice witch, I’m sure your family and friends will love it! It was discounted from 17 Aurum, to just a low price of 11 Aurum!”
James knew Sarah’s mind was in a raging battle. On one hand, he knew Sarah had a soft spot for cute creatures (hence the overprotectiveness of the fairy) and did not want to say no. On the other, Athens had strictly prohibited them from talking to anyone. As if the elf could read her mind, he made the cutest face he could have possibly made. Daniel soon came to the rescue and said:
“Sir, I don’t think my friend here would want it and probably doesn’t have the money to buy one, right Sarah?” he said, adding emphasis on “money”.
Daniel looked at her and she nodded slowly.
“Sorry…”
“Well, suit yourself,” the elf said, lifting his chin up in the air and finally strutting away.
“Don’t worry, I’m on your side Sarah, magic carpets are cool, besides what harm can they do?” Zachary said, bringing about Daniel’s logical wrath.
“Say you are around 100 ft into the sky, you are traveling at incredible speeds and you’re on a freaking magic carpet. Let’s just say the harm they could do is a terrible death.”
“Voila!” Athens said suddenly, turning his attention back to them.
Athens looked at the children and then at the strutting elf.
“Did you-”
“Is that the key to the door Athens?” Sarah asked, redirecting Athens’ attention. See, she could do what Athens had told them to.
He rolled his eyes and inserted it into the keyhole, again, a flash of light came through the gaps. After it stopped, Athens pulled the door open and told them to go inside.
What lay on the other side of the door was the front of a pretty big house. It was in the middle of the woods, though not to deep as a neighbourhood coupd be seen beside it. The house was a Victorian-styled one, with well-designed towers, rustic windows and beautiful vines growing messily around it. James thought it was very beautiful.
“Finally,” Athens smiled. “We’re here.”
ns 15.158.61.20da2
