Blu: Everything Changes, Part 10

One of the men threw back his hood and walked toward Blu: it was the wizard!

She gasped and gaped at him as he reached her and took he by the hand. “What are you-” she began, but he raised his fre hand and pressed his index finger to her lips.

“Shhh,” he whispered. “No questions now; all in good time.” He grabbed her other hand in his and squeezed his fingers, twining them through hers. Then everything around them went dark. When Blu’s sight cleared again, she found herself in a very familiar bedroom; she was home. “Now-” he began.

Blu wound up an punched him, a solid strike on the chin.

The wizard clutched at his jaw. “Okay,” he said after a moment. “I deserved that.”

Blu nursed her right hand (the wizard’s jaw was hard!)“Is any of this even really happening?” she demanded.

He nodded, lowering his hand to his side. “Yes,” he said. “Everything you say and everything you do really is happening.”

“But what about the rest of it?” she snapped. “Is that all real?”

He stared deep into her eyes. “Yes,” he said softly. “It was all real. It is all real.”

Blu’s body goes limp, and she sits down on her bed. She glances around at her room. “So why did you bring me back here, then?” she asks.

The wizard gave a shrug. “I had hoped that if I brought you back here, that you would feel more at ease, that you would understand that you are not held captive there, that you can come and go as you please.”

Blu drew a deep breath, and then heaved asigh. “What is that other place?” she asked softly, glancing up at him.

The wizard stood at his ease, and began his tale. “That other place is a world far from this one, Blu. It is a place that can be reached from manuy places, from which one can reach many places. A very long time ago, a sorceress discovered that place, and made her home there. She took others there to serve her, andothers found their way there on their own, and soon the first great cities were built there.

“But that did not mean that all was well in that place,” the wizard went on, his voice taking on a formal tone, as if reciting an ancient catechism, remembered by rote long ago. “For the sorceress grew jealous of her own power and set herself to conquer all of that world. She had mighty magics at her command, and many servants to follow her, and she waged war on all the world, conquering and enslaving, slaying all those who would not serve her.

“Then, form a place not here, from a time not now, came a people who call themselves Wardens; seeing the evils the sorceress committed, they set themselves against her, and they raised up magicians of all sorts to fight the sorceress; mighty and terrible were the deeds done in the war, and rivers of blood were spilled before the sorceress was defeated. She was cast out, powerless and weeping, to wander lost and alone through the darkness between worlds, and the Wardens left, returning to their own home, in a place very far from here.”

The wizard took a moment to give Blu a smile. “As you have seen, the cabal of magicians has remained; we rule that other place, and defend it. Because that ancient sorceress is not the only one who would conquer and control that place; you met the Elf, a cruel and cowardly example of his kind, but there are others, too, far worse than he.”

Blu stared up at him, trying to digest all this, to take it all in. “So, what happens now?” she asked.

“Now. . .” the wizard said. “Now, you can stay here in your home, in your world; your powers are awakened, and doubtless you can find uses for your power here. Or you can return with me to that other place, and join the cabal.”

Blu stared up at him, and shook her head form side to side. “I don’t even know your name!” she exclaims.

He shook his head with a smile. “You couldn’t pronounce it,” he said with a chuckle. “Call me Vitorio.” He holds his hand out to her. “Well, Blu? What will it be?”