“And you haven’t met them.” Lorian paused, eyes troubled. “Then you do not know their whereabouts?”
“Right,” said the wizard, sobered by the elf’s reaction.
The elf sighed. “I was hoping we’d finally know where they’ve been since we last saw them.”
Anna asked, “Are they missing or something?”
“Essentially, yes.” He looked at them as if something had just occurred to him. “You say that you’ve never heard of them. How is it that possible?”
Matt glanced at the others, but no one answered. “Why is that surprising?”
“There must be some connection between this world and yours,” started Lorian, “for the summoning spell to have brought you. Their existence must therefore be known there, and they are a legend on every world to which they are known. You therefore should have heard of them.”
“Well, I don’t think anyone’s heard of them back home.” Matt was tempted to make observations about the lack of magic and knights and all that, but decided not to get into it. He wondered how the champions could have ever been to Earth, not to mention recently. Magic, had it ever existed, had died out centuries ago. Then again, that was pure speculation as much as anything else. Maybe people secretly practiced it. “Are all these worlds they go to places of magic, knights, castles…elves?”
“Yes, of course.” Lorian paused. “Is your world not such a place?”
Ryan snorted. “No. There’s nothing like this on Earth.”
The elf asked, “Earth? Is that the name of your world?”
“Yes,” Anna replied more politely, frowning at the knight.
Lorian looked at the big man. “This would explain your disbelief that I am an elf?” Ryan nodded, and the elf looked at him curiously. “But you say elves don’t exist there and yet you’ve heard of what an elf is.”
Eric said, “Yes, we have heard of elves, dwarves, dragons, and magic, but they aren’t real in our world.”
Lorian spread his slender hands. “But then how could you have heard of them?”
A long pause followed that. Matt figured that the likely reason was that storytellers and authors had invented them, but elves were real on Honyn. How could they be real in one place and an invention of the mind in another, and yet be so similar? They had to be the same, which meant that somewhere on Earth, at least in the past, elves, dwarves, dragons and all manner of fabled beings had really existed. And maybe still did.
He remarked, “That’s a good question, especially considering we were clearly summoned by magical means from Earth. Magic must work there after all.”
“I don’t know about that,” disagreed Anna. “The magic was performed here on Honyn. Besides, it could’ve just been technology we don’t understand, remember?”
Eric shook his head. “Whatever it was, I assume it had to work on both sides, so if it was magic here then it was magic there. You know, if magic works on Earth, people could hide that fact as long as they avoid doing it in public, but elves, dwarves, and dragons would be hard to hide.”
Lorian suggested, “The dragons could have been banished from your world as well.”
Matt perked up. “That’s true.”
Nodding, Eric admitted, “Yes. And technically, dwarves exist. There have always been little people on Earth.”
Anna nodded. “They don’t act like that, though, living underground, the long beards, being grumpy.”
The elf smiled at her and turned toward Ryan. “But no elves?”
The big man spread his empty hands as if to apologize. “‘Fraid not.”
“There are a lot of deep forests that are seldom traveled,” Matt started, “so they could always be hiding in there.”
“I don’t think that’s so true anymore,” Eric said, “but anyway this is all beside the point.”
Lorian nodded. “Another thing I want to know is where you were when summoned.”
“A place called Stonehenge,” said Matt. “It’s an ancient monument thousands of years old. No one knows what it was really designed for.”
“Describe it, please.”
“It’s a circular monument in an open field, with giant monoliths of stone standing upright, some with other stones on top, connecting them.”
Lorian seemed to think he’d said enough. “It sounds like a Quest Ring. Most look roughly the same, being circular monuments, similar to where you found yourselves upon arrival. Champions are summoned to a Quest Ring on every world and is usually the place from which they depart for home. Magic words are embedded into the material from which the Ring is made—usually stone.”
Matt glanced at the others. That sounded a little too familiar. “There were words in the stone, but they usually weren’t visible.” He described what happened when the words of fire erupted and they vanished.
The elf gazed at him thoughtfully. “Interesting. That suggests they were on a quest on Earth, but you were sent back instead. Maybe they’re still there.”
Eric asked, “Do they need to be in a, uh, Quest Ring, to be summoned, like we apparently were?”
“No,” said the elf. “They could be anywhere, be separate from each other, even on different worlds. The spell brings them together, delivering them to the Quest Ring of those summoning them. However, the summoning spell would fail if they were engaged with another quest. It may have been coincidence that you stood at that particular Quest Ring when summoned.”
Matt absorbed that in silence like the others before the elf broke this thoughts.
Lorian said, “Something of more immediate concern is that Cirion of Ormund and his mercenaries spoke with each of you last night, probably to glean information.” Matt saw blank looks on everyone’s face except Anna’s. She looked startled. Lorian elaborated. “Cirion danced with Eriana while his young wizard, Raith, spoke with Soliander at some length. Nola, an exceptional warrior in her own right, targeted Korrin and nearly succeeded with some design, from what I understand.” His eyes met Ryan’s and the knight flushed. Lorian turned to Eric. “Andier was not a target except as Cirion could get you distracted, as your predecessor’s ability to spot trouble is legendary. A
