Page 33 of Tino
We walked with Julie and the others back to the portal, and even though it was a beautiful day with birds singing happily, we felt anything but. Our familiars were beside us, ready to protect us if danger awaited on the other side.
Willow greeted us at the portal. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to train more before returning, but we hope we’ll have enough time before a war breaks out.” Her words of war weren’t exactly reassuring, but I was looking forward to it being over.
“Where’s Nujik?” Silver asked, ignoring the war comment completely.
“He already went through the portal to make sure they’re ready for us.”
I guessed that meant nothing was stopping us from walking through. I exhaled, trying to calm my fraying nerves. It would be fine. Our family would be fine. My brothers and I would survive this.
“Ready for the true leaders!” A man called and that was our cue. With my hand firmly connected to Tair’s, we walked through the portal, returning home to the Realm of Mages, a place I had once thought I’d never return to.
Seeing thousands of mages bowing as we returned to our home world wasn’t what I’d expected, however, it was the sight that greeted us and with it came the familiar scent of Loine leaves. I’d missed the scent of the trees.
Instead of a campsite similar to the one we’d just vacated, this looked more like a compound. The houses and buildings were more modern, and from the vastness of space surrounding us, it looked much bigger than I’d visualized it would be. This was supposed to be their other safe location, so just how big had the previous one been?
We were still surrounded by forest which I truly appreciated. I wasn’t a big fan of concrete and city air. The compound looked to be run by solar panels on top of the roofs and seemed to be self-sufficient, if the greenhouses further to the left were any indication. It even looked like they held animals far out, and small enclosures and tiny houses could mean chickens and possibly goats, too.
“Welcome to Hunu Bridge,” Nujik said in greeting, standing tall next to the portal. “This isn’t as big as our other location, but just as functional.”
“Do you have other locations than this one if they happen to find us here?” Xarius asked, looking around warily.
Nujik sighed and I could tell last night’s attack had affected him; his eyes had dark circles under them and he seemed more… defeated in his stance. “We only have this place that’s safe and big enough. We were smart when we started building both places, knowing this day would come in the future. This was actually where we wanted Silver to grow up.”
Silver frowned at that, looking towards the enclosures in the distance. Was he picturing what it would’ve been like spending his youth here? It was a huge compound, but it was still separate from the world around us. Tair and I had grown up in a small town, also removed from everything else, or at least it had felt that way. Before my dad was offered, or forced to relocate with us, all I’d known was our small town. The city where we ended up had opened my eyes to so much more. Would growing up here really have been that bad for Silver? I bet it wasn’t vastly different from Altair’s upbringing in our hometown. He told me they’d never moved away from it, and that he never got any friends there after I’d left. It wasn’t easy finding kids our age there, only five others were from the same year, making the school years difficult since we had to share classes with either older kids, or younger. Diverting my gaze from Silver to the many buildings, I had to wonder if we’d all been better off growing up here. We wouldn’t have been so alone, sodifferentfrom others. At least I’d had the fortune of Tair’s friendship for a while, whereas the others didn’t seem to have had that.
We were interrupted from speaking further with Nujik as the other mages came through behind us. Nujik guided us over to the side where the kneeling mages thankfully began to stand. It was a trip seeing thousands bow, many of them several feet away from us. I think I even saw a few down near the enclosures.
“When everyone has passed through safely, we’ll show you around. We won’t waste time on an announcement. Training is our main focus for the rest of the day.” I rather liked having Nujik decide for us, it felt freeing just doing what I was told. I wasn’t opposed to ruling after this whole ordeal was done with, but the stress of the last couple of days had me tired of making decisions, of thinking what would be best. Following orders was a relief.
It took ten minutes for all the mages to join us, and in that time, we’d remained quiet, my hand still latched on to Tair’s as we took in our new home.
“Come,” Nujik said, walking to the right, bypassing another building. We followed silently, still curious as we looked around at the buildings and mages standing by. They looked like we were walking gods, which we definitely weren’t, but seeing as they waited for us totake over our world and make it better, we might’ve been as good to them as gods would’ve been.
“This is the kitchen and eating area,” Nujik gestured to a large building with only one level. “You’ll eat or collect your meals inside. See it as a sort of restaurant where they offer a buffet. There’s takeaway plates and boxes if you don’t want to eat with the others. I believe you’ll be much too tired to socialize most days, so we’ve come up with a way for you to order food too, which will be delivered to your home.”
“I love that,” Xarius sighed happily. I couldn’t agree more. I was already dreading eating inside a big loud building with so many strangers. I much preferred for us to be eating in private, just our small family of seven.
“And that green building is the clinic, if you need a healer, there’s now two available. Not that I think you will, not with how powerful Altair will become once back to his full strength.” I smiled proudly as Nujik spoke of my soulmatch’s powers. I still hadn’t tried out my ability for me to truly know what I was capable of, but I knew that together, all of us, were a force to be reckoned with.
“And over here,” he gestured as we turned to the left, passing by the clinic and a few small houses. “This is the general store for small supplies you might need. They’re all free of course, so it’s more like a storage space where you can grab what you need. Soap, toilet paper, deodorant, etc.” We then turned down another street, passing a few bigger houses. “And that’s your house in the end.” Nujik smiled brightly as he pointed to the end of the street where a three-story house stood proudly. Five small houses stood close, like they were a part of the property, but still not close enough to be ours.
“Who lives in the small homes surrounding it?” Silver asked, just as confused and curious as I.
“Your guards,” Nujik replied matter-of-factly.
“Guards?” Niam questioned.
“We believe it’s safer, that when you sleep others will watch over you and alert everyone if something is amiss. The attack yesterday took many precious lives and had you six been there…. I fear for what our world would’ve come to if any of you had been taken.”
I swallowed hard, not knowing what to say to that. It did make me relax further knowing we would be protected while asleep, butthey had been attacked, and knowing that also meant we could be hit here at any moment.
“What about wards? Should we add our magic to this one?” I asked.
“Every mage that has passed through today will need to offer some of their magic to help ward off attacks, and that means you six too. I feared maybe you wouldn’t be up for it, Altair, but I can offer some of my magic to you if that’ll help.”
Tair shook his head with a polite smile. “I have enough for this,” he assured Nujik confidently. I squeezed his hand with mine.
“I think it would be best if you added your magic before entering your new home. I believe you’d all like a few hours to explore and relax before eating and training.”