Of Princesses and Magicians

Beyond the Gates of Time...

Immortally...most mortals dream of it, especially when they contemplate the cold greeting of death. Yet those few who achieve it...regret it. Even fewer know how to spend their endless time. There is one immortal who at first worked to better his kind through technology however after many endless frustrations he now questions his purpose, his reason. Wondering why he bothers reducing himself to a lifeless stupor.

This is the tale of how two small glimmers of light taught him how to live again.

Many years after world war two in Europe, Wales.....

Near an old ruined seaside monastery there was a strange metal house that some travelers would describe to have a squid like shape with a metallic viewing tower, and a wide entrance from the lawn leading to a big dome with round steps. This was the home of an inventor and sage named Roger Bacon. For Roger, a particular event was about to happen. Inside his home in the lower levels underneath a metal pad Roger had finally finished one of his greatest inventions, the Instantaneous Matter Transporter. He could not wait for its next test run. Roger loved his work as he always had plenty of time, being an immortal although lately he felt like it was more of a curse than a blessing.

While tuning the machine, he began to remember his life before all this started...six hundred years ago.

Roger enrolled in Oxford when he was age thirteen, although many of his teachers said that he lacked wisdom, he had a good heart. After graduating many years later, he began publishing numerous books on natural science and technology, which caught the attention of the Vatican and the Pope. When he met with the Vatican officials he was asked to transcribe an ancient text into a new copy for the Vatican.

Through many rumors Roger heard of these secret texts...it was a collection of ancient rituals that described resurrecting the dead. This had Roger interested, and so he agreed to transcribe the text. The process took him five years to complete. During this time, Bacon used the text to gain immortality in order to pass his knowledge on to future generations. After completing the ritual, Roger erased it from the manuscript, so it could not be abused by others. Upon his completion, Roger was sentenced to death by the Vatican in order to keep knowledge of the document secret. He managed to escape from the Vatican and hid from them for many years.

Roger thought about the 'what if' of the memory as he worked on his machine. What if he never agreed to transcribe that evil text, what if he just said no...but those would be unanswered questions. He was glad to live long enough to meet many wonderful people and travel most of the world, but that book...the Émigré Manuscript, which creates life from death has caused so much sorrow and death that the guilt of preserving such vile knowledge weighs heavily on him.

The little shriveled man crawled from underneath the platform of the transporter, face covered in muck and oil. After grabbing a towel and wiping the mess off his face, he hit a switch on the wall, a red light above turned on, and he began to speak into an old microphone.

"Record number one hundred and one...This is Roger Bacon, I have finished my alterations on the transporter. I now record the final test of the project I've started, to see if I can use the device to teleport objects to my lab from anywhere in the world. The object in question is radiating an odd magical field, and I intend to find out what is."

Roger moved over to the control panel and began to type into the large computer the sequence code, half mathematical data, half magical dialect. Then he quickly pulled a large lever and hit a red button on the panel.

The Instantaneous Matter Transporter filed with both electricity from Roger's large generators and elemental magic from the earth magical pumps. The old magic seal on the flat metal platform glowed a brilliant golden color. Roger seemed pleased that the machine was working properly; however, something went wrong as the transporter overloaded, filling the room with the same golden light and caused Roger's home to shake violently, knocking Roger unconscious. After a few minutes, the light quickly dimmed until it vanished.