Chapter 4

Far off on the moon a man sat with his brass telescope peering at the earth below him. A big grin overtook his face as he watched Alchem lift his sword for the first time in over a hundred years. He knew things would finally get moving again and more than likely he would be reunited with his old companions from before the Dark Age. He pushed himself in his rolling chair away from the telescope and over to his small window. He could see the sun floating around in space and decided it was time to go visit.

Back on earth, several miles away from where the telescope was focused, Michael was banging on his cousin’s door. He stopped knocking for a minute to gauge the facial expressions of his friends. Neither of them appeared to be supremely excited about the situation. “Hey, he could be out at the grocery or something.” This sentence instilled no confidence in either Bart or James. Michael shrugged his shoulders before slamming on into the door. The door opened with the sound of splintering wood. Michael about smashed his face into the wooden flooring as he fell with a crash. Right in front of where he landed was a note and a key. He grabbed the note, read it to himself and quickly crumbled it and stuffed it in his pocket. “He says he had to go out for the weekend and we have the place to ourselves!” Michael claimed triumphantly. Bart and James were still less than impressed.

“Under what circumstances would he leave the key behind a locked door? Was he assuming we would break it down?” asked Bart, while trying not to sound condescending and sounding extremely condescending regardless of his efforts. James couldn’t disagree with his logic.

“Hey, he’s related to me; he’s not a genius.” Replied Michael. They both figured something was astray considering Michael would never admit to his own daftness under normal circumstances. Regardless, they were both extremely tired from the journey and were not about to pass up a place to sleep for the night. As they headed upstairs, Bart and James noticed how barren and abandoned the property was. It was tucked away in a small alley in southern Vordenport, which was not a nice place to be in, especially for two boys used to living in a small town populated by nice old people young families. James remembered Michael mentioning the price of the place being exorbitant compared to what his parents paid for the ranch, even considering they purchased the ranch many years prior. The place was pretty much a dump. James had seen worse, but not much worse. Upstairs when they saw the one and only bedroom and bath it became more apparent that this was not exactly the living arrangement they were promised. James peaked into the kitchen opposite of the bedroom and regretted it.

“I thought you said your cousin lived here with his parents.” Asked James. Michael realized what they were getting at. Having lived in both a county setting and the city he knew the cultural gap would be surprising to a couple of country boys, especially boys. He pointed out the extra bedding spread around the floor in the single bedroom.

“They do.” He replied with a raised eyebrow. When James and Bart realized that Michael was overplaying the quality of the apartment rather than actually lying about the residents they backed off a bit. Still, it was fair to be a little cautious about the rest of the weekend due to how much Michael had talked up the place. Michael slung his backpack off of his shoulder and onto the bed space on the floor. “Pu-pu-pu-pu-pub Ty-eeeeme!” he screamed triumphantly into the faces of his friends. They simply dropped their baggage. Bart slumped into the one and only bed while James collapsed into the chair in the room. As they fell asleep Michael resigned, but not without a quick reminder. “Pubs after naps.” He whispered, essentially to himself, and fell deep asleep.

Outside of the window the sounds of a busy city could be heard off in the distance. Vordenport was an old city that centered around a large bay. The city was composed mostly of white stone brought down from the mountains just north of the city which led into the Bechlian at the northeast corner of the Mainland country. None of the buildings were very exciting to behold but were somewhat impressive in size, especially near the bay. The docking stations were always busy as ships were constantly moving in and out of the port making deliveries and picking up new cargo. If you were far enough away from the center of the city to get a good view you could see all the greenery growing on the roofs of the structures. As you got closer to the bay the streets became tighter and the buildings taller to the point where it always seemed dimly lit, even at day’s peak. Once you made it to the shipping docks, however, the sun beat down like fire and bounced off the white stone making it almost impossible to see.

The bay was shaped like a large “c” which made it nearly impossible for any sea based attack. Vordenport hadn’t been involved in any conflict since before the Dark Age and even when it was very few ships actually made it into the harbor. Inside the bay was a very lively atmosphere. The waves constantly crashed up against the stone walls all day and night as seagulls flew overhead squawking and pooping on everything. Seals would occasionally gather on the lower section of the wall and bark loudly enough to make it difficult to have a conversation near them. The only prevalent color other than the white stone was the brown from the massive wooden cranes and other equipment used for loading and unloading the ships.  The cranes would swing massive crates and pallets around all day while dock managers screamed at their men and tried to keep things moving as quickly as possible. Moving in and out of the bay was a nightmare considering how much traffic there was. There weren’t very many unloading docks despite being packed together as tightly as possible. Larger ships would occasionally arrive and really goof up the works.

There was a river inside the bay with a bridge over it to allow men easier access to all of the docks. Late in the day when the tide was rising the bridge could be raised and ships could make it partially up the river, assuming the wind was cooperating and the ship was under tight control. On each corner of the bridge stood a large tower with ropes leading from a top window down to the center of the bridge. The ropes were attached to massive systems of pullies and spindles within the towers for raising and lowering the bridge. The technology was simple but performed on a massive scale. Raising or lowering the bridge required very coordinated work of at least sixteen men. It took three men to wind up the spindles and a man was required on the deck of each tower to ensure that timing and orders were being relayed properly to the men down below. This was mostly an effort of reading flag signals and screaming loud enough down the tower to be heard over the creaking and whaling of century old machinery.

The bridge was built this way because there was a large ship-building house slightly upriver from the bay which provided work for many citizens of Vordenport and was also the primary source of work and income for immigrants from other lands. Building of ships had slowed down tremendously as more and more lands began developing technology to replace the materials that were often shipped in and out of Vordenport bay. This led to a lot of civil unrest and discouragement among people living in Vordenport as less and less work became available to an ever growing city. This was the primary reason James’ parents were always hesitant to see James head off to the city for a weekend. There was a large amount of crime in the city and it seemed to be getting worse every day. It didn’t help that the small town boys stuck out like sore thumbs in a big city, including Michael.

Up above the city, on the moon, the man known as Shernine wondered out onto the surface of the massive grey rock. He outstretched his arms behind his shoulders and let out a mighty sigh. As much as Alchem liked to sleep, the man on the moon slept at least twice as often. Shernine was not nearly as committed to his human form as Alchem, for example, Shernine could live on a rock in space with no oxygen. Both of the other magicians who knew of Alchem and each other lived in places uninhabited by humans as well. Alchem was very different in this aspect. This separated him from the other wizards in their powers as well as their abilities to communicate with mankind.

Shernine could easily and often communicate with the sun as they both existed outside of the earth’s atmosphere. The sun rarely left his home, so Shernine knew it would be upon him to initiate the visit. With a small breath he leaped off of the moon and on to the nearest star. It was then a journey from star to star until he could find his way to the sun. Shernine continued to dance his way across the universe slowly making his way to the sun. He finally touched down on the fiery surface as lightly as he took off. Fire began to form together into a small, concentrated area until it took the form of a towering human in yellow robes. This being appeared as a man but was as far from human as even Shernine could understand. He had a long brown beard and a smooth bald head. His demeanor was nothing short of commanding. Still, Shernine greeted him with a devious grin. “How’ve you been brother?” This happy greeting was returned with a deep furrowed brow, above a stern frown.

“Alchem is on the move again.”

“Why do you think I came all the way over here?” Shernine laughed with his arms outstretched.