The room disappeared, the now-familiar vortex pulling them into some unknown space between worlds. Anna covered her body with her hands again, since the robe would soon vanish, leaving her nude before her Earth clothes replaced it. Her eyes studiously stayed on Eric’s so they didn’t wander, especially as the rogue made no attempt to cover himself, not for the first time, and unlike everyone else. She saw looks of relief and something on their faces, maybe satisfaction that they handled it well enough to survive. Time seemed to pass quicker on the return, and she sensed she was sitting down as a final flash of light momentarily blinding her.
Chapter 2 – Mastery
“Shit!” Jack jumped to his feet and stepped back twice, brown eyes darting between the four new arrivals, then around as if to make sure no one else was present. He cut an athletic figure, his brown hair short enough to not move with his activity. A paper towel in one hand, wet and red, dripped onto the hard floor. “You guys scared the crap out of me.”
Matt blinked to clear his eyes, noticing that they had returned to Anna’s Gaithersburg, Maryland apartment as expected. Everyone was back in the exact spot they’d been in before the summoning. He still sat on the edge of the couch, a laptop before him on the table and still open to the webpage he’d been perusing. Ryan sat on the couch’s other side, one hand in the bag of ChexMix he’d been munching on. Eric was back to spinning around in an office chair, though he was stopping himself. Jack had apparently been kneeling beside the dining room chair that Anna now sat in, the glass of red Zinfandel she had been drinking broken on the floor, the red liquid half cleaned up. All of them now wore the same clothes as they had been before disappearing. They were breathing harder, which made him realize he was doing the same.
Adrenaline drove him to his feet. Ryan and Eric rose, too, the former beginning to pace. And yet Anna stayed down, lifting one foot like a cat that had stepped in something. Matt saw spilled wine soaking one white sock, shards of glass in a pile nearby. The symbolism of it struck him. Had their lives become just as fragile?
“Jesus,” said Eric, dark eyes assessing them one by one. “Glad that worked.”
“Language,” Ryan admonished him absently, blue eyes far away as he ran a hand over his face and through his blond hair. He didn’t look as big without the golden armor, but he still intimidated. Matt let Ryan’s comment about taking the name of the Lord in vain pass. Ryan could have his faith in God if it helped him deal with what they were facing. Besides, maybe everything they’d heard about their entire lives was real after all, including God.
“Everyone okay?” he asked.
Anna sighed and removed the wet sock. “Physically? Yeah. Not sure about the rest of me.”
“Yeah,” agreed Matt. “That was messed up in so many ways, from the guy getting killed in front of us, to that creepy dark elf. This wasn’t anything like the first time. Could you imagine if that had been that way?”
“What happened?” Jack asked, coming to help Anna step away from the broken glass. Before anyone could answer, Ryan stepped up to the kitchen table and grabbed the beer, drinking a little too much. Jack started, “Hey that was—never mind.”
Ryan lowered the bottle and flashed an apologetic glance. “Sorry. I need it more than you.”
“You guys weren’t gone more than five minutes.”
Eric filled him in, concluding by observing, “We never even got the name of the wizard who summoned us.”
“We don’t even know what planet we were on,” added Anna, sitting on the couch.
“It could have been Honyn,” Matt began, “like the first quest, just to another kingdom or continent. But there’s no way to know.”
“Mostly,” began Ryan, “I’m just glad we’re back again, but I feel like we let down whoever needed us. Besides the wizard, I mean. Even though it’s not our job to do this stuff. Or it’s not supposed to be.”
Matt didn’t agree out loud because he knew he didn’t have to. The real Ellorian Champions were missing, except the wizard Soliander, who he was pretending to be, and who had attacked them on Honyn. They never found out why and might never know. It topped their list of unanswered questions, such as where the real champions were, how he and the others became unwilling substitutes, and what they could do to stop the quests. He had thought about this many times and knew no answers were coming anytime soon. Maybe if they told everyone the truth, they would be left alone.
Eric sat, brow furrowed. “It’s been a week since we returned from Honyn, and we’ve been wondering if that was a one-time quest. I think we have our answer.”
Ryan said, “I didn’t want to say it out loud.”
Matt did. “We’ve been permanently substituted for the Ellorian Champions and will continuously be summoned in their place, for quests we don’t want, can’t refuse, and are likely to get killed doing.”
He felt bad for saying it out load, as an awful silence descended on the room. He sensed he was the only one who wasn’t all that upset by the idea. His life was okay. All of theirs were, too, but none had the potential that he did. The elf Lorian had tested his affinity for magic on the last quest and revealed how naturally talented Matt was. He had never felt powerful before. Of course, he’d never been terrified either. Not like that. He’d been bullied and beaten up a few times growing up, just like Eric, but while his friend had become a martial artist who could now kick seemingly anyone’s ass, whether on Earth or not, Matt was no such thing. Thin, wiry,
