The Guild of The Future

The arrival woke up in a palace of white and silver, surrounded by strangers. These people must be powerful, possibly even gods. Had they rescued her?

“Where am I?” she asked.

The people spoke to each other, but she couldn’t understand any of it. Two of them grabbed her arms, and she understood exactly what was going on. These foreigners, powerful as they must be, had taken her prisoner. She would have to keep her head down if she wanted to survive.

The small room they took her into moved down. She felt sick from it. She’d been like this on ships as well. Her captors spoke in concerned tones.

The room stopped, and they pulled her into another larger part of the palace. She was brought into a smaller room within this place that had beds floating off the ground. She couldn’t take her eyes off them.

Her captors said something, and a young woman with red hair stepped into view.

Wait.

Not young, just young in appearance, but clearly something more. She turned her eyes away from the woman for fear of seeing a goddess head-on.

“You are tired?” The woman asked. Finally someone who understood her, even if the the words were a little different, but everyone spoke a little differently.

“Yes, very tired. What is this place? Are you a god? Is this the great mountain?”

“Slower, please. I haven’t been to,”—she must have said the name of a country—“In a long time.”

“Where?”

The goddess looked at her with scrutiny.

“What is your name?”

“Don’t you already know?” gods seemed to always know these things.

The goddess stared at her for a moment.

“No matter. You may call me Elva.”

The arrival nodded, the excitement of everything having finally left her bones, and sat on the floating bed.

“You need to rest,” Elva said.

“Rest, yes.”

Elva put a hand on her forehead, and the arrival came to sleep.

Something burned. She saw her home up in flames, like before. She ran to the temple to beg again for another chance to save them all. The goddess had to listen to her this time. She had to know what was happening.

She woke up in the first room she’d been in the palace. They again spoke in an unfamiliar language. The heat she’d felt hadn’t been her home in flames, but theirs.

She steeled herself for the ride in the moving room, and remembered the way into the room with floating beds, though she still let her captors lead her. This time she noticed Elva before she came to see her.

“Have we met before?” Elva asked before coming to look at her. That was new, people didn’t remember what happened before, the closest was someone she refused to think about.

“Not in this life,” she answered.

“I see.” Elva spoke to the captors in another language, and they left them.

“Are you important to them?” the arrival asked.

“I am not in a position of command, but as the one in charge of the infirmary, I am respected.”

“Infirmary, for the sick, not a servants’ quarters?”

She’d assumed that she would be a slave here now that she’d been captured.

“No, they brought you here because you appeared out of thin air and seemed unwell. You are not a prisoner.”

“Then I may leave.”

Elva frowned.

“You speak a dead language, and assumed you were being forced into servitude. I recommend learning a bit more about our world before you try to leave.”

“But there is something wrong. You remember.”

The expression on Elva’s face said she didn’t remember.

“I just knew you recognized me. Your thoughts are not quiet.”

The arrival jumped away.

“Are you a goddess to read my mind, or some monster?”

“Neither, I am a mage.”

“A sorceress!” She’d seen a few in her time, always great and dangerous, often with the same forebears as gods. She shouldn’t let her know her fear.

“I am a seer,” she admitted, hoping it would earn some trust, “Though most would deny it. Will you trust me?”

Elva hesitated, and the arrival ran. She couldn’t meet any of the captors, as they served the sorceress, but she could find a place to hide from her. Who knew what the sorceress might do to her now?

The room she hid herself in held items tightly packed on shelves. When she grabbed one, it appeared to have writing, and she could flip the pieces of paper to find more text.

“You may be more used to scrolls,” Elva said from the entrance.

The arrival held the non-scroll out like a weapon. Elva put her hands up for some reason.

“I mean you no harm. I just want to know what you meant by there being something wrong.”

“You are a sorceress, how can you not tell?”

“I am a sorceress of the mind, not of time, but you saw something going wrong?”

“I felt it, while you made me sleep. I felt burning, like my home, but much worse.”

“No…” Elva started to smile.

“It was.”

“I believe you. I just can’t believe who you are.”

“What do you mean who I am? How do you know me?”

Everything burned again. That was too fast.

She tried to reduce the time wasted on getting to the infirmary. When they finally got her there, she thought very hard.

I am a seer, you are a sorceress. I need your help to save you and your people.

Elva’s eyes widened, and she said something to the guards, who left them.

“You make a lot of assumptions for someone I have never seen before.”

“But I have seen you, and you are the only person who can help me for now.”

Elva took her hand, and looked deep into her eyes.

“How can I help?”

“I need to know your language, otherwise I can’t talk to the others, unless you can command them.”

“I cannot command them, but I can solve the language barrier.” Elva flicked her on the forehead.

“Now you know the language.”

“Was that a spell?”

“Something like that.”

“Are you a powerful sorceress?”

“I’m certainly an old one.”

Perhaps it would hold. After all, her mind would go back, so a spell on it could solve everything. Now she just needed to learn everything else.

They still spoke a language she didn’t know. The spell must have been lost when she returned. She had already memorized the way to the infirmary, and tried again to move fast enough to save time. They merely grabbed her arms and moved at a slower pace.

This time she denied the sorceress’ spell on her mind.

“The spell was lost when I returned again. I need a permanent lesson.”

“That is going to take a long time.”

“I have time.”

Elva took her to the library, and they chose a few books that she claimed were simpler reads.

She was right about time, but every new attempt made things easier.

She started running from the infirmary each new time as she stopped needing Elva’s help, though she soon realized Elva was stronger than her in all respects, pulling her from her reading to ask if she meant harm.

Fascinating as the books were, and she found herself enamored with all manner of them, she found herself just as fascinated with the pieces of Elva’s story she could grasp.

Elva was much older than she looked, claiming at least a millennium of experience, but appearing not much older than the arrival herself. In her early years, the original “Heroes’ Guild” had been founded, and she found herself among its ranks by the time she was a teenager.

Elva told tales of whole worlds converging, and enough people considering these heroes a threat to the tentative peace that the Guild, Elva’s family, was disbanded. Elva saw hundreds of years pass, and the worlds consider each other neighbors, despite the lengths one needed to go to travel between them. Eventually peace was not threatened, and as Elva guided young superhumans through the old hall, a few had an idea spark within them.

Barely a year ago, Elva nursed that spark into warriors. Though hardly the great organization of centuries ago, this new Heroes’ Guild had already made a reputation for itself.

“And now we have members from each of the high races, representing their own worlds.”

“I have seen armies like that. They fight amongst themselves almost as much as they do united.”

Elva laughed.

“They aren’t that bad. They all have enough space not to bother each other if they don’t want to.”

The first children, as Elva dubbed them, were Tetra (another sorcerer) and Nightingale (something called a mystic). A Changeling called Alter joined soon after. Among their representatives Rainbow Riser represented the Fey, Void the Demons and Angels, Vara the Raosi, Puerile the Pan, Stéri the Djinn, and Caliana Barile represented the Kronos. There was also Terrestrius, who represented the sorcerous organization of the Masters. Elva had much to say about all of them. The arrival couldn’t help but grow fond of the strangers she kept waking up to see.

But fondness alone wouldn’t stop the burning, nor would knowledge. She needed to save them, more than when she was merely preserving her own life.

She woke up again.

“How did she get here?” one of them asked.

“Does it matter? Take it to Elva. She can handle whatever it is,” a much smaller one said.

“It is a person, Rainbow,” this speaker offered her a hand to get up, which the arrival gladly took, “Sorry about her.”

“You are all in danger.” she chose to avoid the pleasantries. “There is an explosion happening that will destroy the entire building and everyone in it. If you let me go, I can help save it.”

“Is that a threat?” a large one with horns coming from his head asked.

“It is a warning. Please, I do not wish to see this place destroyed.”

“And how can we trust you?” another one asked.

“Because I’m the only one who can solve it.”

They brought her to another part of the building, and threw her in a cell.

“You’re going to need a lot more proof,” one of them said.

She needed to be more careful.