The Accidental Archmage by Edmund Batara (read out loud books .TXT) 📕

had rested, Eira moved to the cliff face and pointed out the opening. No

wonder he couldn’t see it. It blended perfectly into the rocks. And the opening was

small! Barely enough for a person to slip through, head first but turned to the side,

body in a sideway position. Eira signaled him to go first. At his first try, he couldn’t fit.

The armor and the sword got in the way. He removed all his armor and his sword and

tried again. He could just slip inside.

As he started to go in, Eira told him that she will meet him inside. He started to think about the unfairness of the situation. Especially when the rock started to scrape the

skin of his face and his legs. Thankfully, his clothes prevented other cuts and abrasions.

Though he believed he may have suffered a few due to the sensation of some parts of

the cloth being torn by the rock face.

Finally, he broke through and stood up. The cavern was already lighted by Eira’s magic.

It was not that big. It looked like it could only fit a three-story house. A big house

perhaps, but he felt underwhelmed. He expected something grander. He could see the

ruins of the temple. Only a small part of it remained. The rest was buried under tons of

rock. It looked like most of the temple was now part of the mountain. Even the roof,

except for a small section resting on top of two columns, was gone.

He picked his way down to the temple, where Eira was standing beside two large

tablets embedded in the temple floor. It looked to be the beginning of a series of

tablets only that the mountain had crushed and covered most of the third and covered

the rest. As he neared, he could see that the columns were of four sides which started

with a square base and slowly tapered towards the top. It was crafted in one piece,

though most of the free-standing columns remaining looked sheared at the top at

different heights.

They appeared to be marble of some sort. Or appeared to be marble. It could have

been black. But the antiquity and the millennia of dirt accumulated in the place made it

impossible to tell. Reaching the tablets, he saw them to be pristine, as if no dirt nor age could touch them. About the gray material, he had no idea. But though embedded, the

body of tablets rose about two inches from the floor which appeared to be of the same

substance as the damaged columns. As he looked closer, he could see writing on the

large tablets. Very small squiggles written in thirty thin lines with a justified

arrangement. The writing left generous spaces as margins. By his estimate, the square

tablets appeared to be about a meter and a half on each side.

“Can I touch it?” he asked Eira.

“I think so. My brother and I have touched them many times before.”

Kneeling, he examined the writings as well as the sides of the tablet. He couldn’t see

any protrusions, hidden buttons or such devices. He then thought that any such

irregularities would have been discovered already by the siblings.

“Even on Earth, I don’t recall seeing any similar writings, even from archaeological finds

I saw on the internet.”

“What’s an internet,” came the query.

“Oh, the worldwide web, long story, I can explain some other time,” answered the engrossed Tyler. Any discussion about the internet could wait.

He looked at the engraved squiggles. It was unmarred by the usual scratches or

imperfections seen with engraved writings on hard material. They were perfect. In fact,

they looked as if they were laser-etched. He touched a written line in the middle of the

tablet.

He immediately disappeared. No sound nor visual cue accompanied his vanishing.

Eira looked on with a shocked face.

Meanwhile, Tyler immediately found himself in a white room. A chair with a table was in

front of him. Also in white.

“Hello?” He gingerly called out. Thankfully his voice didn’t break. He didn’t need to add

embarrassment to his rising anxiety.

“My greetings, Elder. Please take a seat.”

The replying voice sounded male and was friendly enough. Regaining his composure,

he sat on the cushioned chair. God, this is comfortable.

“Where am I and who may you be,” asked Tyler, trying to sound as calm and as

friendly as he could be.

“A moment please, while I adjust my parameters.”

Parameters? Tyler tried to make sense of the use of the word. It is a word he only

encountered in back on Earth. He didn’t expect to hear it on Adar. Too modern.

And “Elder”? The voice must have confused him with another being.

“My thanks for waiting, Elder. May we proceed?”

Quite polite, noticed Tyler. Yet his reaction to the ongoing incident surprised Tyler. It

was quite odd. He was not as shocked or panicked as he should be, being shoved to

another reality for the second time. He idly wondered if the surprises that kept cropping

up since he arrived on this world have inured him to these situations.

“Before anything, can you please tell me where I am?”

“We are in the tablet and also in your mind, Elder. I will be using concepts from your mind for effective communication. Rest assured no intrusion will be made on your will,

your private thoughts, or freedom of thinking.”

Freak me twice. A mind reading entity. What have I gotten myself into now?

“That’s a bit confusing. How can we both be in two places at the same time?”

“We are in the tablet, Elder. When I said “your mind”, what I meant was the things you

see and hear are taken from concepts and ideas from your mind. It eases your

transition to this place and your comprehension of what we will be discussing.”

“Then who are you?”

“I am but a guardian left by your ancestors, Elder. Before they ascended millennia ago,

they left icons of their presence on this world for their descendants. A memory of what

and who they are. Unfortunately, the upheavals on this world have either destroyed or

damaged most of their sanctuaries of knowledge. Like me for instance. Buried under a

mountain of rock, with only two memory banks remaining.”

“Memory banks?” asked the surprised Tyler.

“The term is the closest approximation I have for the