The Lost Element of Magic

5. The Origin

She stood up and abandoned her throne. Walked towards me. And said , "Welcome. I suppose you do not know anything". Her aura dimmed as she approached me.

"Where are you? Who am I? What's your purpose? What's the truth? Can you answer any of these questions Emrys?" , she asked. Dumbfounded I shook my head.

"Then ask", said she. "What?" , I said, still confused. She raised her chin and titled her head a bit. "You seek knowledge. In order to gain it, you must ask. Ask what you desire to know. Ask.", she said. "I am extremely confused and really don't know where to start asking so best if you explain the basics."I said. She raised her eyebrows as if not expecting such stupidity.

"Very well let me start then. History doesn't seem to be your strong point. ", she sighed . "Long ago were five worlds existing parallel to each other. I do not mean to say nations or continents but worlds , realities. Similar they were but not. Through some , points in space I may say , it was possible to visit these realities or worlds. Each world had five elements. Fire , water, air , earth and magic. It was all peaceful, but when in history has peace ever really existed? ". She gave me a queer, witty questioning look and continued , "Peace is a veil with holes. It is a quantity that differs with points of view. Your peace may not be peaceful for me and vice versa. There will always, I say , always be someone against an idea. Amongst the times of peace, as is to be expected, some people wanted conflict and violence. Just as it only takes a spark and for the wind to turn a blind eye for a fire to catch , war needs only the spark of rebellion and a blind eye turned by others. I need not say war begun."

"The war lasted for long , but the result was indecisive, since everyone had all five gifts of fire , water, air , earth and magic. Everyone was equal. No one died due to war. But sustenance , artillery , metal , resources were used up to a meaninglessly meaningful end. It was a time of chaos. Then the very people whose carelessness led to the war, the leaders of the worlds, agreed to sign a truce. The terms were that one element would be removed from each of the worlds. That would give each world an advantage over others and a disadvantage too . Little did the truce makers think that completely taking away an element from a world made it difficult to survive. Each person alive had to go through hell and back to survive the change. From a game of war and power it turned to race of survival ; survival granted only to the fittest. People still live like that and their deepest desire is what they don't have. The element gone from their world is the one they most want. Thus came the names of the worlds, the world without Water, the world without Air , the world without Earth , the world without Fire , my world and the world without Magic, your world ."