Chapter 6-An Eternal Fortress
They began walking forward along the remarkably flat cobblestone street. Irgen and Idus listened to the merry echoing of pattering feet as their footsteps rebounded off the walls. Suddenly Idus had something strange happen to him, which hadn’t occurred in almost an entire night…He had a thought, well more of a question really, but still his mind grasped something… Something he considered a rather large step.
“Er, Thomas, or Blackington, or whatever. Isn’t this, well kind of a big castle, here in the middle of the hills, can’t people see it here?” Idus looked quite beside himself with joy that was the first intelligent sentence he had uttered in over a day.
“Ah…” Blackington paused before flashing a jovial smile. “I never properly introduced myself now did I? My name is Thomas Tarentus Blackington. But you may just call me Thomas. And you see Idus, this entire fortress was built by magic, which means that no Spartan can see or even touch it for that matter. It doesn’t exist according to their imagination.” He lingered for a second before continuing, “And here we have one of the six fortresses of eternity.” He paused again as though waiting for the full affect of what he had just said to hit them, but they just looked confusedly back at him. “You’re not telling me that you haven’t heard of the fortresses of eternity?” His voice sounded shocked. They both shook their heads and he exclaimed. “Good lord. You two really have been kept in the dark for your whole lives haven’t you?”
“It would appear so,” came the sarcastic voice of Irgen. He grinned just as Idus had, at finally being able to speak again.
“Well… where to begin, where to begin? Well I suppose I can tell you that originally there were only four fortresses but the last two, one of which is this one, were made in secret, although they all have the same deep magic woven around them. They were built as safe havens for mages. So no one, whom the current owner of the fortress does not want to allow in, will be able to find it. Even those who have seen it before and know where it is. However, the owner has to have good reason, bordering on protective reasons, as to why that person shouldn’t be admitted to the haven, for that person not to find it.” He had uttered all these words with almost no breath. It seemed as though he was trying to tell them something he thought they couldn’t grasp, because they did not understand this magical world.
He surveyed them with his bright blue eyes for a second before finally saying, “Well, if you don’t quite understand it yet. I’ll tell you the whole story as soon as we enter the tower.”
And once again silence fell over the group as they continued along the beaten path to the tower. Finally they reached the ancient stone door and it swung gracefully open as if to say, “Welcome Home”. Blackington led the way into the tower and everyone else followed suit until only Irgen and Idus were left outside. They gave each other a quick glance and they seemed to feel in their hearts that all they had ever known, their lives of sports, school, and play, was at an end. They both stiffened simultaneously, and with two rapidly beating hearts, they stepped boldly into the tower.