The Nextworld Invasion and the Death of Magic - 24. Chapter 24 - A Different Kind of Magic

“I can’t believe it worked,” Dorjin whispered to herself. She had cast a charm for simply peering between the two worlds, and yet before her were a pair of openings in reality that led from Earth into Nextworld. She then turned to the short, limby captain of the Mermonster with a relieved expression. “Kilial, thank you again for agreeing to let me stay here. I don’t want to go back.”

“Don’t worry about it, Dorjin. Until we figure out what to do with you, you can stay with us.” Kilial nodded to Alydrael, and she turned to the others. “You each know what to do. We’ll be waiting.”

Tigath and Othri locked their purple and orange eyes, and they stepped through one of the two mystical doorways.

“I’m gonna miss you, Nuji,” Alydrael said in a breathy voice.

Nuji winked at her, and she and Lestralin slipped through the second opening, and the quartet was gone.

The two portals in reality disappeared.

Kilial turned back to Dorjin with an impressed grin on her wide mouth. “Nice work.”

Dorjin’s hands were covered in fish guts from the Human magic she had performed, but that was nothing new for her. She was staring in awe at the spaces where the two doorways had just been.

“Why don’t you clean up,” Kilial recommended, “and I’ll get started on our food.”

Dorjin said quietly, “An attack on Nextworld is inconceivable to Kalthrin. They know you Earthians have no way to breach the barrier. They are certain they’re untouchable in Nextworld.”

Kilial smirked. “Looks like they’re about to be touched.”

Down in the Mermonster’s galley was a dead fish that they were going to roast and eat, but instead of using its innards to catch other fish, Kilial had given them to Dorjin, who used the guts to cast her spell.

“Should we head below?” Kilial asked.

“I kind of want to stay up in the sunshine,” Alydrael replied as Dorjin cleaned the slime from her fingers in a bucket of seawater.

“Suit yourself,” Kilial replied with a chuckle, and she headed down.

Dorjin looked at Alydrael’s leg. “Should we go sit?”

“That would be great, thanks.”

The two young women sat across from each other at the table by the Mermonster’s wheel.

Dorjin furrowed her brow in thought. “Why do you suppose none of the other Humans’ charms are reacting with so much energy here on Earth?”

“What do you mean?” Alydrael replied. Her pale yellow eyes were full of curiosity.

“Well, back at the beginning of Kalthrin’s invasion,” Dorjin explained, “after we attacked the city your people call Vuliburge, we were using our magic here on Earth, but it didn’t have any more power than usual. The spells worked just like they do for us in Nextworld. It doesn’t make any sense why my charms have been so much stronger.”

Alydrael could not guess the reason either.

“In Nextworld,” Dorjin continued, “we use spells for everything, but it took the advanced development of complex magical formulas for us to eventually break through the barrier between our two worlds.” She looked sheepish, and her voice broke as she added, “I’m sorry, again. I didn’t mean to be part of something so horrible.”

Alydrael headed off Dorjin’s spiral into misery by shifting subjects. “Dorjin, can you tell me more about the past of your people? If Humans once inhabited Earth, it must have been eons ago.”

Dorjin choked down the lump that threatened to rise in her throat. “Yes,” she replied, “our banishment was in the ancient past, but we did come from Earth. The stories that my people tell say our ancestors came from a world of beauty, and when our most skilled magic-users first cracked through the reality of Nextworld and caught a glimpse of Earth, they knew they had found our origin.”

“When were your people first able to look into Earth?”

“Thousands of years ago,” Dorjin replied, “my people’s earliest stories are about the wonderful realm of Earth, but our ancestors never had any proof of its existence, and they believed it on blind faith. It wasn’t until our early haruspex developed complex spells that allowed them to see the Earth, that they realized our stories were true.”

“Can you tell me the story?” Alydrael requested.

Dorjin nodded, and to her surprise, the rainbowy creature came scampering over and sat beside her as if he wanted to hear her tale as well.

“Looks like Illiop likes you,” Alydrael added with a little giggle.

“Illiop?” Dorjin said down to him, and he rubbed the side of his face against her shin. She tentatively reached down, and Illiop let her stroke his silky fur. Dorjin made eye contact with Alydrael. “We’re all taught a poem as children,” she explained, and she recited it from memory.

When the world was young

The songs unsung

Told of man t’was but a child

The ancient tongue

Before spring sprung

Blessed the feral, the fierce, and the wild

Under our banishment

And unjust punishment

By the wicked dwarfs, orcs, and elfs

From our Earthen home

Forced to roam

By those wicked dwarfs, orcs, and elfs

“Sorry,” she mumbled when she finished it.

“It’s okay,” Alydrael replied. “If your people really were banished by ours, the poem’s tone makes sense.” She then squinted her pale yellow eyes at Dorjin, as if trying to figure something out, and she asked, “Dorjin, how old are you?”

“I’m nineteen.”

Alydrael was surprised. “So am I.”

“Really?” Dorjin questioned. “I got the impression that you were older than me.”

“I had the same thought about you,” Alydrael replied. “You seem so mature.”

Dorjin studied the green-skinned young woman. “You know, Alydrael, our bodies aren’t all that different, are they? Through the barrier, your people seem so… I don’t know… different from us Humans, but you’re not.” Dorjin reached up to her head and took hold of a lock of her own hair. She leaned closer to Alydrael. “Your blonde is almost the same blonde as mine, but our different skin tones make our hair seem really different too. It’s not though; our hair is so similar.”

“But why don’t you have yellow eyes like me?” Alydrael asked.

Dorjin scrunched up her nose. “Your eyes are weird. They’re kind of cat-like, but like a big cat, like a leopard or something. Your eyes are unnerving.”

Alydrael felt a little hurt by Dorjin’s words, and Dorjin noticed the change in her expression.

“No, no,” she quickly added, “I like your eyes, Alydrael! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that I didn’t like them, and that’s what my words sounded like, but that’s not what I meant. I like your eyes,” Dorjin repeated. “They seem like a predator’s, not that you seem like a predator.” She let out a little embarrassed laugh and added, “It’s just that no Humans have yellow eyes like yours, or purple or orange like Tigath and Othri. Mine are boring and brown. Some Humans have green or blue eyes. I think your eyes are pretty, Alydrael.”

“They are? Wow, thanks,” Alydrael replied, and she felt a little blush working up her green cheeks. “Erm… Dorjin, do Humans with blue eyes grow blue hair?”

Dorjin snorted a bigger laugh. “No, our hair is even more basic than our eyes, brown, black, and blonde are essentially it. Lucky ones are born with red hair, but in truth, for most of them, it’s more of an orangey color, but not as truly orange as Othri’s though.”

Illiop rubbed against Dorjin’s leg again, and she petted him some more.

“Dorjin, you’re really only nineteen? You seem so much more grown-up than me.”

“I don’t know, Alydrael, I feel like you’re a real grown-up.”

Kilial laughed at the two of them as she appeared at the top of the stairs. “You’re both just a couple of kids!” She climbed the rest of the way up and revealed that she was holding a basket of bread and a dish of butter. “The fish’ll be done shortly.”

“Kilial, Dorjin and I are the same age.”

Kilial nodded and focused on the Human with a grin. “Dorjin, if you had green skin, you might pass as Alydrael’s sister.”

“You think so?” Alydrael asked, and she smiled at Dorjin.

“I’m surprised by how alike Humans and Urcai are,” Kilial added. “I thought Humans were monstrous, and while the actions of your people may be, your physical forms are not. Your body proportions are just like Urcai. Your facial structures are just like Urcai. I wonder why Humans have such pale skin.” Kilial pinched Dorjin’s arm with her spidery fingers.

“We actually come in lots of different shades,” Dorjin replied. “I’m pale, and my former commander back on Nextworld is really pale too, but my suitemate has dark skin, and my best friend has skin almost the same color as Nuji, kind of olive and ruddy. None of us have green skin though.”

“Do Humans have a heart?” Alydrael asked.

The question sounded to Dorjin like it was meant as an insult, but the curious expression on the green woman’s face said otherwise.

“Ye-yes, we have hearts.”

“And lungs?” Alydrael added without hesitation.

“Yeah.”

“And liver and kidneys and intestines and brains and… and…”

Dorjin shrugged and chuckled as Alydrael tried to think of more body parts. “Yeah, we’ve got all that stuff. It seems like Humans and Urcai are more similar than different, which is really surprising to me too. I know we call your people by the wrong name, but next to me, you seem almost Human.”

Alydrael reached across the table and interlaced her fingers with Dorjin’s, and both young women had flashes of memories in which they had held someone’s hand. They each felt a flutteriness that was very similar to those moments. The two quickly pulled their fingers apart and looked away from each other, and Illiop let out a little chirp at their feet.

Kilial turned from the pair of young women and said, “I’ll head back down and grab the rest of our food.” She began to descend the stairs, and they creaked quietly. “You don’t have to whisper,” Kilial replied to the Mermonster with a laugh. “Nuji is the only other one who can understand you, and she’s not here.” Kilial reached the bottom step, and the walls of the hallway that led to the galley groaned. She snickered at what the ship asked her. “Yes, there might be romance in the air.”

Many people had fallen in love on the Mermonster over the thousands of years of the ship’s existence, and it was picking up some emotional chemistry between the two young women.

“I don’t know what’s going on between them,” Kilial added. “I thought Alydrael fancied Nuji, but there definitely seems to be sparks between Dorjin and our Alydrael.”