Olimpia

Excerpt from The Mad Scholar's Wall—

The elves quickly made it clear to us that while they had powers we could not comprehend, they were not — and never would be — gods.

Many doubted their words no matter how many times they heard them. And because of that, over our first decade in this world, it was not uncommon to enter a house's back room and find a shrine built to High King Areekail or some of the other Elvan Lords.

Some even tried to erect temples around our new city, though the elves would not let them stand, always claiming to be unworthy.

It should be understood they built the center and walls of Olimpia within a single day and night, pulling the stone from the very earth. Structures that were little more than an afterthought were comparable to Rome, the greatest city of our old world. Proving once again how great the elves were compared to us.

Though the camp followers and legions combined numbers were barely enough to fill a small town, there was a problem we could not solve.

Even with over 2,500 legionaries dying in the short battle, there were still far from enough women in the camp followers for the other three thousand still alive to find a spouse. The ratio of men to women at the time was about three to one.

As such, it was to be expected that some of the two races would begin to pair off.

The result was to be expected if surprising. For the elves told us that while we appeared similar, it was unlikely we could produce mixed offspring.

Despite that, within the first year, the first mixed-bloods were born.

The differences between pure-blooded Romans and the half-elves were immediately apparent.

Their ears were four inches long and tapered upwards and back to a point. Their features were sharper and more refined. And most of all, a mixed-blooded infant could destroy a room and everything in it with its mind as it screamed for attention.

**********

Even as the eagle's cry faded, I mentally marked a tree and started walking toward it. I felt quite a bit of urgency and wanted to speed up to a jog and maybe even get up to a run, but I could hardly get my feet into a shuffle.

It wasn't that I was tired. I had been this tired before — and hoped to live to be this tired again — and could still move with more grace than I was showing now.

What I could not manage, what was so far beyond my ability to manage, I might as well try to reach up to the sun and bring it to the ground, was keeping my eyes locked on the stupid tree I mentally marked. Hmm, which one was it… Ah! That one.

There was no way to deny it. The dust was not making the trees blurry. At least it was not just the dust. Really, the dust was probably only a tiny part of the equation.

Everything I looked at was barely coming into focus. It took more effort and longer than I would have liked, and even then, at the edges, it was blurry. And if I tried to focus my eyes too hard, a spike of pain would be driven into my head. I also was pretty sure blood was running down my face from my nose. Maybe my ears, too.

I reached up and wiped away some of the grime covering my cheek, and as I looked down at my hand, the grime was darker than what sweat and dust should be.

Yep, probably bleeding from the ears.

I was mostly confident.

But again, could not really see without hurting myself, and I didn't really want to push my eyes to see the extent of how fucked up I was.

Umm… Which tree was I heading towards again? Bloody crows… I mentally sighed as I locked my eyes on the tree I was pretty sure I had picked before.

It shouldn't matter if I got a little lost following the Dawn Tree's instructions. All I had to do was find a tree with a big hollow in its trunk by a cliff. Kind of hard to miss a big wall of dirt, even if one is blind.

I just had to follow my line and not get turned around. And my tree was… Shit!

Sighing, I made my best guess and continued walking.

What I was doing was simple.

If you don't know the area and don't have landmarks to keep track of, pick two objects and walk a line between them. When you reach the object you're walking to, find a third object in line with the first two and repeat the process as necessary.

It's not as easy as it sounds, as nothing ever really lines up exactly right. And depending on how thick the foliage is, it could be nearly impossible. But it works great if you practice enough and just have to go in a general direction.

So long as you could see.

Without that one key requirement, things got rather complicated.

Taking my best guess at what was a tree out of the blurry mass of greens, browns, and shadows in front of me, I kept walking.

I passed tree after tree as I walked over the loamy ground and crackling leaves and twigs of the forest. As I passed them, I could identify that they were, in fact, trees. Though, sometimes, the trees disguised themselves as bushes. The tricky bastards just didn't want me to be right.

My vision is getting worse by the minute… I sighed reluctantly, acknowledging the fact. I knew what had happened.

I had been overextending myself and became mentally exhausted. The final straw was the backlash of the ground scraper casting powered solely by my willpower shattering.

While my condition was probably close to a moderate concussion, I should be fine given some time, even without a healer. But I knew I would hurt myself badly if I tried to use my mental powers again.

The damage could be as simple as dropping unconscious when I extend a tendril, or I could have a stroke and lose some bodily function for the rest of my life. No way to tell how bad it would be, and no one had ever volunteered to join a scholarly study to find the correlation between those who overextended themselves and their impairments.

I was at the tail end of what is commonly referred to as the haze. It's where your body starts shutting out external stimuli. It stems from using so much willpower and mental energy that your mind can't take it anymore.

Your vision fading in and out was one of the most common signs that you were already well into the haze. And once it starts, there is no stopping it other than resting. It's like severely pulling a muscle; your body makes sure you don't use that part for a while.

I tried to pick up my pace because of the growing itch on the back of my neck, like someone sending a death stare at me. I was running out of time to escape.

The swishing scrape of my feet brushing aside leaves, dirt, and twigs could be heard about once a second. It was the best I could manage.

My surroundings blurred as I focused on walking forward, and time passed.

I have no idea how much time it was, but it could not have been more than ten minutes.

Then I turned around and looked up in shock as I heard a piercing noise.

"Caaaw!" Cried out the shining golden eagle in the sky.

I was still under the branches of the trees, and I was confident that he could not see me right now. The bird might eventually be able to find me with its sharp eyes, but there was a lot of forest he would have to search through.

On my part, it would be hard to miss the eagle even without its annoying cry to make me look.

He was floating in the sky like a burning sun, looking like a total prick. All I could see was a silhouette, but with the cry and the golden light, I knew who I was looking at.

"How in the Ancestor is he shining like the sun…" I said, sighing in resignation. I wasn't even surprised anymore.

That would take effort, and effort was beyond me at the moment. Maybe later, I will look back on this and be amazed by all the absurdity I encountered during this mission.

About to turn and continue walking, I was rooted in place with a shock so deep that it broke through my apathy of exhaustion.

"You injure me, legionary?" Said the beastkin, his voice filled with derision on the last word. "You mock me and mine? You lead us on this chase and try to harm us with a dying relic of a lost age? You think you are strong? That is only because we have chosen to never press you. Your people cannot conceive of our strength. Well, I will show you the power of the Chosen!"

With his words, a ball of light appeared above his figure and grew brighter and brighter until even his shadow was consumed by its radiance.

And then a new sun, for the regular sun was still off to the west, fell to the earth, leaving a golden eagle flying in the air.

For a moment, nothing happened. I thought that it might all be an illusion. That somehow the eagle beastkin was projecting what he wanted me to see like some of the nobles can do. Or my concussion was worse than I thought.

Then the forest flashed a golden red, and I was thrown back as the loudest shockwave I had ever heard rolled over me.

It felt like a wall of hot telekinetic force slapped me, and I rag-dolled.

I was thrown back and rolled head over ass across the ground until I finally flopped to a stop with a thud. Not that I heard the thud, as my hearing wasn't the best at the moment, but from what I felt, it must have been loud.

Laying on the ground, looking up at the forest's canopy, I tried to breathe.

Whatever force hit me knocked the air out of my lungs. The tumbling across the ground didn't help.

Second after second passed, and my mouth worked at the air as nothing came out or went in.

I need air! I have to breathe! I. Have. To. Breathe! As I thought the last word, I lifted my good arm and slammed my fist into my chest.

Lurching up, I gasped in the sweetest breath of air that I could ever remember taking.

Coughing, I looked around the blurry forest, licking my chapped lips, but only saw the few immediate bushes nearby.

I had to reach deep into my memories for what I was feeling. It's just not something I have experienced all that often.

I felt… sunburned. There was just no other way to describe the tight, hot, and dried-out feeling on my face and arms.

And it was no wonder my face felt burned.

Gone was the cool embrace of the forest.

Every breath was like I was leaning over an open stove. And my breathing was being caught and hitched in my throat as the air was so hot I could feel it scorching my flesh. The damage was only getting worse as every moment it was building upon itself.

Getting to my feet, I saw a forest on fire. Well, it was more like flickering blurs in the distance, but I was growing proficient at interpreting blurs.

In one direction were the greens and browns of a rich, vibrant forest in the middle of spring. The other was an increasingly fiery red with hints of gold smoldering wasteland I didn't want to be a part of.

Staggering a few steps forward, I fell against a tree as a moment of weakness passed over me.

When it passed, I pushed off the rough bark, making the obvious choice of turning and walking to my right. I no longer knew if it was the right direction, and I didn't care. Behind me, the forest was quickly turning black from smoke, and in front of me was no fire.

It was the perfect direction.

My breathing quickly grew ragged as the heat in the air combined with the thick smoke. The combination scratched my throat and made me feel a persistent itching sting.

Even when I wasn't breathing — wheezing and coughing — I could tase the chard wood of the forest.

The forest had become nearly as dark as night, except for the ominous flickers of the fires behind and around me.

The crackling pop of burning wood filled my ears, but it could not drown out the primal screams of fear and pain of the forest animals. They ran blindly from the most ancient of terrors. That which all creatures of the land feared.

Every creature in the area might be running away, but not all could escape. And a doubt that I would be counted among those who would be trapped took root in the back of my mind.

I found a new source of strength fueled by fear welled up inside of me. My pace increased, and my shuffle could almost be counted as a jog. Even my sight got slightly better as the trees around me started to take on a little bit of sharpness again.

Passing tree after tree, I constantly looked at my surroundings for where I should go. Where I could hide and find safety.

I did not find a conveniently placed lake.

Even with the moment of clarity and burst of energy, I knew I would never outrun the fire. Squirrels, rabbits, boars, and deer passed me at several times my speed.

Passing between two trees placed closely together, I stopped, and despair filled me.

I stood at the base of a loosely packed forty-plus-foot slope, with the occasional rock poking out of it. Though it was more like a cliff.

On the bright side, I could see it was possible to make it up the slope thanks to the animals. But as I was now, I didn't think I could make it in a practical time frame.

Practical, as in staying between the gaps of the animals climbing the trails up the hill so they didn't trample me or knock me off the path, causing me to tumble down the slope, forming a mini avalanche.

I'm trapped… And I'm going to die. I thought, despair washing over me as I looked down at the short spear I still held in my good hand, thinking if I should kill myself rather than burn.

Coughing, I looked back at the slope, my eyes being drawn to the left. It was only natural to study the largest tree at the base of the sl… Feck.

Closing my eyes briefly, I mentally cursed myself. Then I opened them and started walking as I muttered, "By the Dawn Tree, I can't even see a barn as I'm walking into it."

A few animals bounded around me as I walked to the lone tree, but I made it there without difficulty.

Walking around the large tree, I found it was eight feet around, and most of its insides were taken up by a large hollow.

Leaning inside the wooden cavity, I immediately started looking and feeling around, brushing aside the few leaves. The surface of the cavity was smooth, except for a spot on the upper right of the mouth, where a crevasse broke apart the wood.

Reaching up into the crevasse, I found that it went up for about a foot until there was a lump that took up half of the passage.

Past the lump was nothing but a quickly narrowing end, and with the reliable source of the Dawn Tree telling me there was a latch somewhere in this tree, I started messing with the knob.

Grabbing hold, I pulled down.

Nothing happened for a second, then the wood slowly scraped down, and I heard a loud click from below.

The floor in the tree started dropping away as a spiral wooden staircase became visible.

I took a second to take in my escape, then threw a glance back towards the Dawn Tree past the increasingly burning forest.

A pang went through my chest because I knew this was all my fault.

Turning away from my shame, I walked down the stairs.

Darkness quickly enveloped me as I moved one of my hands to the wall and carefully felt out the next step. It wasn't long before a soft greenish-blue glow welcomed me from down below, and I was able to stop slowly feeling my way down the stairs.

Which was lucky because I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep standing. I was coming down hard from the adrenaline rush of imminent death.

Finally, I went around the spiral stairwell one more time and entered a hallway lit with blue-green light.

Searching around me, I did not take in much. I was looking for a way to close the passage.

Even as I came down the stairs, I felt the cool air of the tunnel heating up. The fire was creeping closer.

Seeing a lever sticking out of the wall next to the exit, I reached for it and took a step.

The next thing I knew, I was looking up at the lever, my thoughts becoming cloudy, hoping it would lower on its own.

Lifting my arm, I grasped at the air, trying to grab the increasingly blurry and distant handle.

I couldn't reach it, and getting up was a pipe dream.

The air scorched my throat with every breath. Or maybe my throat was already so messed up that it just felt that way.

It didn't matter. If the air wasn't scorching now, it would be soon.

Rallying myself for one last push, I scraped together the last drops of mental energy in my mind. Guiding the energy through my body, I pushed it down my arm as I raised my hand, then sent the mental strand no more than a string's width shooting from my finger to wrap around the wooden lever.

"Ahh!" I screamed as a spike of pain slammed into my head. My voice caught in my throat as my vision rapidly closed in from the edges.

My arm fell, and I tried to help it on its way as a tendril was still trailing from my finger.

I might have heard a click as the darkness of head trauma overcame me, but I didn't care. I had done my best, and what would happen would happen.