Saturday Bonus

So I quit the one job that I had on Saturdays, only to find myself immediately working Saturdays at the other job. I am not that affected by the change. The drive is shorter, as are the hours. But it also means that sometimes an extra post will be made on Saturdays.

Here is your Saturday Bonus. And if you read before monday you can get a double bonus. Chapter 29 is posted on the web page for the story. Have fun!

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28

The people had a hard time at first getting the entire story out of the mages. The mages didn’t want to share their discoveries, nor did they really know how.

Slowly they started to open up to the questions.

They started with what had taken them so long to talk in the first place.

For years before the trade between the species had even started, the mages had been sensing a dark undercurrent using the same energies that they relied upon for their magic. Since the wars were still fresh in the minds of both species each initially though that the other was the cause. Yet as trade blossomed and the animosity between the species lessened, they saw that the darker side of the energy stayed the same.

Even once they had discovered that the other side was not the cause of the bad energy, they still did not want to discuss the problems with the energy flows.

It would take more investigation, and more evidence to support whatever conclusions they achieved. So they continued to investigate the evil hidden in the depths of the world.

The longer they investigated the more they saw how the evil was affecting the basic energies of the world, but they didn’t know what possible impact that would have on the world. So they continued in their silence, neither side wanting to have less information than the other.

Each side continued to investigate, and the results seemed stranger and stranger.

Then it happened.

Almost as if planned by fate mages from each side met. They had been walking through a forest that was bordered on one side by an elven city, and on the opposite by a human village. The forest was huge, and it was nearly impossible to run into somebody who had entered at a different place than you.

Somehow that night parties from each side ran into each other somewhere in the forest. Ill at ease, each party struck off in a different direction without a word spoken between them. Soon enough, however, they ran into each other again.

They repeated this two or three times before they finally decided to speak.

When they finally did decide to exchange words the first ones were the obvious. Why had the other side made no move to communicate?

The answer from both parties was that they had been working on something important. The answer of course led to the next question. What were they working on?

That question of course led to answers that led to more questions.

Neither side getting the information that they wanted, both parties headed for home.

We only have the smallest bit of information of the events that occurred over the next few days. But even what we do have seems like a wealth when compared with some of the other information that we get from mages.

Over the next few days the mages discussed their encounter with the other side amongst themselves. They finally came to the conclusion that they might learn more by sharing what they had, and then working together to determine what it meant.

Each side finally announced its willingness to discuss with the other. Only later that same day did they learn that the other side had made the same announcement, at almost the exact same time.

The mages met formally for the first time only days later.

They exchanged only the smallest bit of information at that first meeting. But it was enough to tell them that it would only be the start, and that they needed a place that was private enough for them to truly investigate what had been going on.

The mages started to plan what they would need, and formally announced their plans for a lengthy formal exchange of information.

Once the mages entered the specially built compound they still had trouble getting past some of the suspicions that had lingered for years.

For some days after formally entering the compound the sides kept to separate area of the grounds.

Finally, after almost a week the most powerful from each side convinced their people that the meeting had to take place.

As they entered the grand meeting hall each gazed nervously upon their counterpart. When seeing the same feelings of distrust and fear upon their opposite’s face as they knew they had on their own most broke into laughter.

Most of that first meeting was spent in introductions. They determined the specialties of all of the attending parties.

In the last hours of that first meeting they decided the focus of the time that they were to spend in the compound.

They decided that they were going to first compare the data that they had gathered, and then they would try to determine what it all meant. If there were no conclusions that could be drawn from the information that was on hand then the mages would work to acquire enough information to make some definite conclusions.

They had no idea of the work ahead of them.