At the end of the Third Shadowwar, the forces of evil were defeated so thoroughly, so completely, that no-one thought they would ever threaten civilisation again, but they were wrong. Totally, disastrously wrong...
The Sceptre of Samnos. Volume one...
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Thomas, Jerry and Lirenna watched in fascination as Elmias Pastin carefully laid the ornate Fu-Nangian carpet out on the grass in front of them. It was twice as long as it was wide, decoratively patterned in red and black with images of dragons and peacocks and edged with long tassels, some of which were missing. Despite this, it looked shockingly valuable, and would have seemed more at home in a nobleman's parlour than on a damp lawn in front of the conjuration building of Lexandria University.
The three young wizards, now dressed in the travelling clothes they'd had made for them a few days previously by one of the valley's tailors, stepped closer, and Thomas stooped to touch the tightly woven fibres with the tips of his fingers. If he'd expected to be able to feel the magics that permeated it, he was disappointed. There was nothing to suggest that it was in any way different from any other carpet, and he looked cautiously up at the senior wizard, wondering whether he was playing some kind of joke on them. Could this be some new kind of test?
Over the centuries, wizards across the continent of Amafryka had tried several methods of travelling quickly across great distances, but no-one had ever managed to improve upon the basic flying carpet, a device that had already been well established during the earliest days of recorded history. Flying broomsticks had also been used now and then, but tended to be dangerously unstable and liable to dump the rider off a thousand feet above the ground, and teleportation was a high level spell that only experienced wizards were able to master. The only serious competition the carpets had ever faced had come from the howdahs, comfy chairs surrounded by curtains and a canopy in which wizards could ride in stately splendour, and there were still wizards who used them today, but carpets could be rolled up and carried under the arm and stored in a corner of the house, or even laid out on the floor to serve their mundane function as pieces of room decoration, and it was for this simple utility that they had remained the transport of choice for most of the world's wizards for over ten thousand years.
Five years earlier, Thomas had, like most apprentices, been teleported in by his sponsor wizard, Sunbold the Wise, who'd lived near his home, in the city of Nobridge. Going home was a different matter, though, because wizards could only teleport to a destination known to them and there were no wizards familiar with Ilandia, Thomas's homeland, currently resident in the valley. The nearest they could teleport him was either Belthar, a thousand miles further north, or Kenestra, nearly eight hundred miles to the south east, both of which would mean a long overland journey through perilous terrain, and the teaching wizards hadn't worked long and hard just to see their graduates killed by trolls or goblins. For them, and the twenty or so other apprentices in a similar situation, therefore, the director had authorised several carpets to be taken out of storage in the artifact repository for temporary use in taking the graduates home.
Elmias saw the look Thomas was giving him and smiled. "I assure you it is a genuine flying carpet," he said. "When you're old enough and your abilities have matured a little, you'll be able to sense the magics within it for yourself. So, are you ready to go?"
