Destination Starlight (13)
Natil gasped, but understood as she slid unnoticed out of the crowd, and into an alley unseen. The maiden motioned for Rijiin to come. He shook his head in silence. “I have to help them or they will die here. Stay out of sight my love.” He mouthed and she nodded. The elf moved even closer to the couple, and was behind them. The elf wanted to get a closer look at the couple who stood in the strange looking cloaks as the churchman approached closer with the soldiers. The crowd moved aside for the soldiers. The churchman pointed and people were taken out of the crowd for questioning at random. He came across Joe and Chelle, who stood staring blankly ahead, overwhelmed by the horrendous sight they were actually seeing before them. Chelle had tears in her eyes overwhelmed by the realistic horrors that she saw before her. The churchman stared at them in silence, astonished by the garb and noticed a black piece of leather on their wrists. The watch faces glistened in the light. He gasped loudly. “By god! Heretics! Guards, arrest them in the name of God!” Joe drew his blade, as did Chelle, and the crowd seemed to disperse around them. Joe parried the soldier who stepped up and cut his throat quickly. Rijiin stood his ground behind them as soldiers ran in from all sides. The elf drew the blade from under his cloak. He moved in and slashed the churchman in the throat, and blood splattered before them. The crowd gasped and even the couple turned in surprise, gasping at the young farmer behind them, his sword glistening in the light. Soldiers stood astonished at the farmer with a strange looking blade who had slain the clergy of the church. “Murder! Seize him!” The guard shouted as they ran toward the elf with their blades and Rijiin fought hard, taking them down within minutes, exchanging a brief barrage of steel between them. Joe and Chelle were likewise engaged. When they were finished, the elf backed toward the couple and stood before them as a horn sounded and a gong clanged. They both were perplexed by the butchery, and the real looking blood that flowed on the ground. Chelle turned to gag, throwing up onto the ground. The pair realized the blood was real and they had killed human beings in cold blood, their blades stained with it. They had not disappeared and they were clearly NOT in the games. The bodies lay in the cold, bright light on the cobbled square. They glanced at the elf who stood beside them and who motioned to them. “Come with me if you want to live and follow me.” Rijiin instructed hastily, “Soldiers are on the way to reinforce this place and will be too many to fight. We need to be under cover or be in the dungeons.” Rijiin pointed to their blades. “You both know how to use those?” Joe and Chelle nodded their head. “Good, you better damn well learn quickly, if you don’t!” The elf snarled, “I can not protect you both to get you out of hell out of here to return you where you belong.” He motioned to them and they all retreated into the nearby alley. “Who are you?” Chelle asked, “Where are we? Are these the games? What is happening? Did we just kill people?” “I am a friend.” Rijiin said simply, “Hold your questions until we are under cover.” “I also give you my token, however.” He held up his wrist and both Joe and Chelle gasped seeing the black watch on his wrist. Joe grabbed the elf’s hand, peering at the watch, familiar to him. Chelle had gasped loudly. “Where’d you get that?” He asked, and the elf shook his head. “I’ll explain everything. Just follow me close and fast. Soldiers are almost here.” In the distance, a horn was sounding and a gong sounded still. Boots pounded on the cobbles as soldiers rushed toward them. The elf turned and vanquished two more soldiers. “We need to get out of here, now.” They retreated further into the alleyways toward the back streets. Joe saw the bodies laying on the cobbles and the blood that pooled around them. “Fucking hell, where are we?” Joe asked, and Chelle nodded as they moved quickly along. “You are in a land that will kill you quickly if you are not careful and a time that is way, way, way out of your league.” The elf replied. “We don’t understand.” Chelle complained but the elf merely shook his head. “Come, I’ll take you to a place I know in this rat hole. I’ll answer all your questions that you will need to know.” The elf motioned to them. “Keep your hoods up too it better conceals your faces from the soldiers and others who would identify you as Heretics here.” The elf paused, scanning the surroundings quickly and grimaced. “I’ll get you out of here, I promise you that, and give you your lives back.” Chelle and Joe both glanced back at the smoke filled courtyard and three people smoldered against the stakes in which they were burned. The couple glanced at each other and then back toward the courtyard, following their new friends, even though they did not understand clearly, what was happening. They suddenly were glad to have an ally here in this place, instead of soldiers surrounding them. They still had the horrendous sight of the people burning at the stake in which they could never blot the images from their heads, or the smell of burning flesh. Even the blood that had been spilled from the bodies of the men they killed. The elf and the couple found themselves in another alley and here he motioned to a young woman, beautiful and exotic to the couple, and here he embraced his young Harper warmly. “You alright, beloved…?” Rijiin asked and the elf maiden nodded. “I am well.” She replied, “And unscathed.” “Good, let’s get to that place I know, so we can talk.” Rijiin suggested and nodded. He led them to another part of the city and down stairs into an alcove. He lit a torch, and he led them through the muck, and sewage, along a narrow walkway under the grates of the city toward their destination. It was a simple room, underneath ground level in a tomb. The elf turned to the pair and his beloved Harper. “I found this place, the last time I had to evade the guards.” The elf explained, and nodded to Natil. The elf turned and walked into the chamber, lighting the torches around them. The Harper and the human couple entered too. Rijiin closed the door, and barred it, securing it, peering in the dark, spider-web laden walkway that preceded it before hand, as he made sure they were not followed. The tomb was made of stone and had two rooms and in the narrow inserts were the mummified remains of people. Rats scampered in the dim light, and many kinds of bugs lived in this place. Joe and Chelle peered at the surroundings and glanced at each other. “Jesus, where are we at now?” Chelle asked, glancing at Joe to grimace and hug on him. She peered into his eyes. “I know, Honey.” He whispered, “That was really serious shit. We’re safe though, we’re okay.” He held the young woman, and both turned their heads to the strange couple. Both Joe and Chelle noted the elf stood with his back toward them, checking and gathering stuff from the satchel that he had carried with him. “Be at peace, you are safe here and can lower your hoods. We can speak freely too, no one can hear us.” Rijiin told them, as he worked. The human couple pushed back their hoods. They peered at the elves in the dim light. The elf was looking at his companion when he had spoken to the human couple and he turned his head to them. The elf had gasped openly as he finally recognized them, showing genuine surprise. Rijiin had not been expecting to see Joe and Chelle, not in this place. The human couple glanced at each other, at his surprised expression. “Sweet beloved lady.” He gasped, “Joe and Chelle Cram, I presume? I can’t believe it!” The couple gasped, and they stared at the elf incredibly, when they heard their names. The elf had acknowledged the couple, Joe and Chelle, despite their surprise. They both did in fact nod, however, glancing at each other. They both showed by surprise at the elf’s revelation, having grimaced. Chelle blushed slightly in the dim light. “Yes, but who are you?” Chelle asked, “How do you know our names? We’re not married, by the way.” The elf realized that he almost had given himself away by his initial recognition of the couple and merely grinned. “I’d better introduce myself. I am Rijiin, Rijiin L’Theil the Just.” He said, bowing wide stance and low. “I am your savior who kept you out of the dungeons of the Inquisition just now.” He motioned toward the Harper whom he put his arm around and held. “And this is my traveling companion, Natil of Malvern.” He said. The Harper smiled, curtseying formally. “May the hand of the Lady, upon ye both.” Natil said formally, making the human couple grimace in surprise at the strange accent, if not inflection they heard in her voice. They were stunned by her beauty. Rijiin pushed back his hair, revealing his slender ears, and tied it quickly. The human couple gasped at the young elf, staring in astonishment. They had never thought to see something like this, except at a renaissance festival back home and it usually being makeup but somehow realized that it was not and it was very much real. Chelle gasped openly, both the young humans staring in silence at the handsome stranger, who obviously knew them. “You seem to have us at a disadvantage Rijiin…” Joe said, "I don't remember someone like you…" The elf's glance had silenced them and his eyes seemed to flash brightly. Rijiin’s expression became solemn. "I was not whom I was tis long ago." The elf replied, "You would not have any memory of our meeting as I am now." He shook his head. "No matter, to the business and affairs at hand." Rijiin declared, glancing at the couple to nod. “To better understand where you both are, you are in the capital city called Hypperex. Somewhere in the time frame about thirteen hundred and fifty-two.” The elf explained, “This is the fourteenth century, real-time, and there is no due process or law, like you know, or where you have come from in the future. It is a savage and harsh time and place. You break the laws here, you go to a rat-infested dungeon where you will be tortured, killed and your girlfriend raped a few times before she is killed too. Therefore, I suggest you stay with me. End of story.” His statement had been very blunt but could not have been anymore the truth about the place they now stood in and time where he now lived. The elf nodded at their astonished and startled expressions. The couple gasped openly and glanced at each other. The elf’s eyes seemed to flash in the dim light as he stood in the room beside the young maiden with him. “Yes it is true. You are not in the games where you started. It is now real time, and you both stand in a place that will kill you in a thrice.” The elf snarled. “If you want to remain living, follow me and I will lead you out of here. We will go to somewhere safe before we travel to the portal that brought you to this place from the future.” He grimaced. "I know where you have come from, and your origin, you are from the future, from the twentieth century, and traveled through a portal that brought you here." Chelle gasped loudly, at the elf’s revelation. “No way! H-how do you know that? W-who are you? Really…?” She asked, “H-how did you know we are from the future if these are not the games. This can’t be really the fourteenth century.” Here the elf regarded the human couple, people he had known for a short time when he was living in the future and utilizing their Bulletin Board System. The elf grimaced at the couple. “You both came from the games in Eastridge Mall right, and a shop called the Dungeon right? You were there to play simulated games right? You felt disorientation when you step through the doors into the game and tumbled through the energy conduit and ended up in the middle of a forest?” Both the human couple gasped again, surprised by the description, play by play of what had exactly happened to them. “I know where you are from, because I did it a few months ago myself.” The elf admitted, “Also to answer your question Chelle, I was also there to play the simulated V.R games too, and I thought I was in them at first, but ended up finding… another… and walking another path… as you can see.” The couple glanced at each other, and they shook their heads. They peered at the elf incredibly, who was so strange, exotic and different that they had never seen in their travels. Chelle had been astonished when he had answered her thought question about him and had gasped. The couple realized that there could only be one man that it could be. The couple was not easily convinced, and sensed something was very much amiss by the presence of the strange couple. Joe decided to ask, their journey suddenly complete and realized both they had found their missing BBS member. The young human realized this was his friend and college friend who stood before them. “N-Nathaniel…? Dude… Is t-that you?” Joe stammered, blurting out the question and Chelle glanced at the elf, then to her boyfriend in surprise. The young woman had peered at the elf too, and had been thinking the same thing as her boyfriend. Joe had shown apprehensiveness at first to ask his question, as-if being afraid to know the answer. The elf sighed, making them glance at each other, but surprised them both when he nodded his head to their questioning looks. “It is, but that name has no meaning to me now, not in this place, or this time.” The elf corrected, “But I was him once, but I am no longer…" He paused at the expressions they had on their faces, the almost priceless astonishment. Rijiin fought a grin on his own face, trying to remain solemn and serious. He was glad to see them, nevertheless. "I am not who you are seeking, but you have found me. Be at peace… I am at your service.” The elf bowed formally, touching his forehead, rising to meet the still stunned looks of the human couple. Joe and Chelle had had gasped loudly, absolutely stunned by his response. They peered at the stranger before them. “But that’s not possible!” Chelle stammered, tears forming in her eyes as she peered at the elf. “He’s dead Joe! How can this person be him… How can you be him Rijiin?” Chelle had tears of frustration in her eyes as she peered at the elf but everything he had been true. Rijiin had precisely told them what happened to them, and the same thing that happened to Rijiin many months before that. Both the couple knew there was no way this stranger could know unless he had done it himself.
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