I can’t believe I got this for only fifty pounds. Almost feel bad for the poor sucker who sold it to me. Talk about a steal.
She held up the book. “This is four hundred years old. Our country isn’t even that old.”
A collective gasp swept the audience.
“But even after thinking about how old it is, it’s important to realize this is just a hand-copied version of a far more ancient text. This book was discovered in a tiny little bookstore in London. The owners thought it was a copy of the Rigveda and never bothered to get it translated, which was unfortunate for them. It was recovered by a…freelance collector who had it translated. She discovered that it provides previously unrevealed details of the events leading to the sinking of old Dwarka.”
Yeah, don’t want to let these students know I have a massive hidden library of ancient books. That might raise a few too many questions about how a newly minted professor could afford something like that.
“The book suggests that the sinking of Old Dwarka was less a direct punishment of Lord Krishna, but rather the result of the people and non-divine beings involved ignoring his warnings about following dharma. Thus, their actions led to the same outcome.
“Interestingly, the tale related in this book is one that I think any modern person, magical or otherwise, would find familiar. There were multiple factions in the ancient society, with increasing tensions between two of the main ones in the decades preceding the sinking. That is to say, there was no sudden cataclysm, but more a slow-motion disaster that people could have seen and avoided.”
Shay set the book down, rested an elbow on the lectern, and nodded up at a new slide revealing a rather stylized battle involving everything from chariots to a saucer-shaped vimanas performing a strafing run with blue and orange lightning bolts.
“The book doesn’t detail the exact nature of the tensions, only that they concerned the disposition of a rare resource. Some scholars suggested it might be something like adamantine. Others have suggested unusually powerful magical artifacts and who should be using them. In any event, even if we don’t know what they were fighting about, we do know that in the end, they formed two opposing armies and waged a final massive battle using powerful magic, probably some of the strongest in the world at that time.”
The next PowerPoint slide was simple and straightforward: a mushroom cloud. Maybe it wasn’t all that accurate depiction of the aftermath of the battle, but it got the point across.
Silence choked the lecture hall. The audience was hanging on her every word.
Yeah, I’m good.
“Powerful elemental magic was used by both sides, but according to the book, which recounts the stories of a few survivor-refugees, the spells on both sides were more effective than expected because of synergistic interactions. Massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions helped sink the island, and also raised the level of the sea to swallow what was left. So, the story ends like so many on this planet end, with short-sighted greed destroying everyone involved. No winners. No losers. Only a handful of survivors.”
Shay nodded to the book. “We’re just beginning to untangle the truth of those long-ago events, but there’s still a lot to learn.” She took a deep breath. “Now, do you have any questions?”
Mary raised her hand. “You just talked about elemental magic, but now that we have wizards, witches, and Oricerans, can’t they help reveal the exact nature of the magic? Not that I want them to use the same spells, but if they could tell us more about the magic used, then we’d get closer to the truth of how the city and island were destroyed.”
Shay shook her head. “Most magical people aren’t all that interested in the site, and even then, it’s not that easy for a wizard to figure out the kind of magic used in a battle thousands of years ago. Initial investigations have confirmed that powerful magic was used on the old city and the island, but that’s all we know.”
A huge male student Shay didn’t recognize raised his hand in the back.
“Yes?”
“So, like, you mentioned the treasure earlier. Are you saying that there could be piles of gold or super-powerful magical artifacts there, and no one has found them yet?”
Shay nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. The thing is, even with magic to help, archaeology, let alone underwater archaeology, can be hard. Damned difficult, even. There hasn’t been much interest in exploring the site, even though some are worried about curses or other dark magic that might have been left over from the destruction of the island.”
He frowned. “But curses are BS, right?”
The tomb raider shook her head. “Some are, but a lot aren’t. Many archaeologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries got lucky that the low level of magic on Earth limited the power of the curses associated with some of the sites they investigated. For example, if Tut’s tomb had been found in the modern magical environment, every last person associated with that dig would most likely have been dead within days.”
Most of the class gasped at that.
Mary shook her head. “It’s just strange to think about how much more there is still to learn about this world.”
Shay nodded. “That’s exactly what I want you all to take away from these lectures. Remember, you should be happy that we found out about Oriceran. Happy that there’s a whole new frontier of knowledge to challenge your mind. Also remember that although many myths and legends have turned out to be true, there’s no guarantee that they all are.”
Several more hands shot up, and Shay grinned.
Damn. I love this.
Shay chuckled as she walked toward the parking
