Lorian nodded. “I have often wondered the same, but they did not discuss their reasons. I know they sometimes aren’t happy with disruption caused by the timing of a given summons, but they put on a good face.”
Ryan said, “It sounds like they didn’t want to do it any more than we do.”
Matt suggested, “Maybe someone forced them into the quests, just like us.”
After a long pause, Lorian remarked with some surprise, “Four people of such power could not be easily compelled to do things they don’t want to do.”
Eric thought Matt was on to something. If they’d found a way out of it, that would explain why they weren’t answering anymore. Maybe that was why he and the others had taken their place, but it didn’t explain their disappearance, or the substitution really. More importantly, if they were true replacements, were they also now to be repeatedly summoned and unable to refuse? The idea alarmed him.
A soft knock turned their attention to the door and an elf discreetly opening it, carrying a pine tray of several wines and chopped fruits. Eric noticed that the intrusion surprised Lorian. He recognized the elf as the one who’d tried to take Matt’s staff and magic books on arrival. The servant was unremarkable save for the white streaks in his otherwise black hair.
“Did they ever try to leave without completing a quest?” Eric asked, realizing too late that perhaps he should’ve waited until the newcomer left, but Lorian seemed unconcerned.
Watching the servant set the tray on the table, Morven replied, “Not to our knowledge. At the least, it would have looked quite unhero-like.”
“I suppose so.” Eric hadn’t thought of that. “My point is that if they never tried, how did they know they couldn’t?”
Lorian nodded as the servant began passing out the fruit bowls. “Assuming you’re right and they were compelled against their will, it’s possible that early in their adventures they tried and discovered it wouldn’t work, but that is conjecture.”
“I guess we’ll never know,” Anna remarked, sighing, “unless we find them and ask.” Something seemed to occur to her. “Has anyone gone looking for them?”
“Yes,” replied Morven. “But they have not been found.”
Rognir said, “The fact remains that they disappeared altogether and have not returned to their home world. They have friends and family, of course. There have been no sightings of them anywhere.”
“So they are missing,” observed Ryan.
The dwarf nodded.
“Presumed dead?”
“No,” answered Lorian, “it is not easy to presume such a thing about four such capable people.”
“Imprisoned?”
“Also unlikely, but less so.”
Ryan asked irritably, “Then what? What is most likely?”
Eric let the others do the talking, as the servant had caught his attention. He seemed to be taking his time. Something about the intensity of his eyes, the pointed way he looked at each of them as if noting their features, made Eric suspicious. As the elf reached him, their eyes met, and the servant’s grey eyes reflected a quick and easy smile that exuded charisma and friendliness. Suddenly the rogue felt foolish. Maybe he was just letting things get to him when he shouldn’t.
Matt broke his thought when he asked, “Could they be on a quest to a world where time moves at a different speed, so they’ve been there a short time but a hundred years has passed on other worlds?”
Rognir snorted. “I’ve never heard of such a world.” His eyes sought confirmation from the elves and got it.
“Possibly because if anyone went to such a world, they’d be gone an awfully long time before you’d find out about the time difference,” Eric noted. “Maybe they’ll show up at home in fifty years.”
Lorian nodded. “True, but before such a world could summon them, others would have traveled there and established contact, and when the extreme time difference was discovered, they would have warned people not to go there. Regardless, no one would tell such a world of the champions, build Quest Rings, and teach the summoning spell because once summoned to that world, the champions would be unable to help any other world for a long time.”
“Good point,” Matt admitted.
“How did different worlds find out about them?” Eric interrupted. Different lands on one world was one thing, but this interplanetary travel was quite another.
“Soliander sent an apprentice to most of the initial worlds,” Morven replied, “instructing them on how to build the Quest Rings and use the spells. After that, other worlds shared the knowledge, as he had instructed them to do so freely. Also, it’s accepted fact that Soliander sent the apprentice, so this assumption of the quests being involuntary is baseless.” After a pause, he added, “In any case, no one would want them summoned to a world where they’d be for many years while only days passed everywhere else.”
After a pause, Eric observed, “Unless someone wanted to get rid of them the easy way.”
Lorian looked at him approvingly. “You are as clever as Andier himself. While they had many enemies who might wish that, they mostly earned those foes after the quests started.”
“So it’s not realistic?” Anna asked.
“No,” Lorian replied, waving off the servant from pouring him wine, “for the simple reason that the four of you have taken their place.”
“Why?” Eric asked. “Does that imply something?”
The elf answered, “Yes. If they were still on a quest, no one, them or you, could be summoned and you would not be here.”
Anna summed up, “So regardless of where they went and for how long, the only current quest is ours.”
“That is correct,” replied Lorian.
They mulled that over in silence, picking at fruit, or in Ryan’s case, enjoying more wine. Eric decided not to say anything.
“Does anyone know where the last quest was to, or what they had to do?” the knight asked.
The elves shook their heads. “Word tends to spread between worlds when they arrive somewhere,” Morven answered, “unless the world has limited communication with other worlds, as
