Chapter 6

3190 seasons previously before current times

"Beth! Beth! Where are you? Are you here in the house?" called out Wolfgang as he started down the hallway.

As he moved around the house, everything looked similar but somehow different. In spots there was dust and cobwebs, but not enough to make the house look abandoned. But no matter where he looked he didn't see Beth anywhere.

Heading outside he noticed two young boys just outside his door. One was leaning with his back against the wall and the other seated. They appeared bored, but other than that they seemed to be just killing time. They might have appeared to be guards if they weren't so young. Why were they here? Did Beth have them stationed here for a reason?

"Excuse me, who are you and why are you outside my house?" asked Wolfgang as he looked them over.

Startled they both jumped up and stared at him

"Are you really Master Wolfgang?" asked one of the young boys with wide eyes.

"Yes, and who are you?" asked Wolfgang raising an eyebrow.

"I'm Daniel and this is Tyrone sir", said both boys with awe.

Wolfgang would have estimated their ages at no more than fifteen or sixteen at best.

"Has either of you young men seen my wife?" asked Wolfgang

"Sir we were only instructed that if you were to awake on our shift to get the town elders and let them answer all your questions," said the boy.

Bowing, the boy Daniel hurried off towards a town leaving Tyrone behind him staring in wide eyed wonder.

Confused by his statement, he started looking the direction the boy was headed and he was very surprised to see how many homes were all around him. There was a large and crowded town in his valley where before it was a small but open village with rolling fields.

He could see most of his inventions still around them in different states, but all looked well used with only a few in various states of disrepair.

"Boy what is going on here? When did all this happen?" asked Wolfgang sweeping his hand as he gestured at the town below him.

The boy just continued to stare at him as he spoke with his mouth opened in shock.

Before long the boy Daniel returned with five older men in various ages between forty and fifty.

As they reached Wolfgang all of them as well seemed to stare at him in awe. Similar to how the boys did. Wolfgang was starting to feel a little nervous from all the attention.

Waving his hands towards the town he asked again "Who are you people? Where is John? Paul? Where is my wife Beth? What is going on? When did this town get here?"

Looking at him shock a man in his late forties spoke up "It's him. It's really him. I looked in on him a few times before I became mayor and I'd recognize his face anywhere."

The other seemed to be ignoring his question.

"Hey ... guys? What is going on here? I need some questions answered," said Wolfgang as he snapped his fingers their direction.

"Sir, Master Wolfgang, we need to enter your house so we can give you your answers. Everything you need to know will be answered then," said the Mayor.

Leading him back inside his own house, Wolfgang was surprised that these total strangers seemed to be so familiar with his house. He couldn't remember ever giving them a tour.

As they approached his study he was surprised to see so many changes since the last time he was there. There were far more books for one thing than there were ever before around him.

"We were instructed to show you this box and that you would know the combination of day month and season to say for it to open. We were told to wait outside in the hall and leave you to read what was inside," said the man who spoke earlier.

"What is your name?" asked Wolfgang as he took a seat and received the box that was held out to him.

"My name is Dashi. I'm the Mayor of the town," said Dashi.

"Thank you Dashi," said Wolfgang as he tried to figure out what was going on.

As they closed the door behind them Wolfgang studied the very large box sitting before him on the table. It was as large enough that it took up much of the table it was sitting on and almost as wide. He was confused on how to open it before he saw what looked to be a hand print on the top of the box.

Placing his hand on the box over the hand print, he quickly remembered he was to say something. Reciting the day of his wedding as the first thing that came to mind he heard the lock pop open.

Opening the lid of the box he saw several books that appeared to be dairies in it and on the very top of one of those books a well worn notebook contained with in it.

Taking the book out labeled "One" out, suddenly a spell went off and there was a miniature version of Beth's head hovering over the open case.

Looking at mini Beth Wolfgang was confused.

He was sure it was Beth because it sounded like her and he could see her freckles, but she looked so old and her hair was white. Last time he saw her she was only twenty nine. What had happened to her?

"Hello my love. If you're seeing this then I've passed on. I had this box made so that only you could open it, but you had to be awake and speak the words so that no one could open the box while you were asleep and see what was inside. I had a spell cast on the box, both inside and out to preserve the contents so that no matter how long you slept only you could open the box.

"At the time of my having this box commissioned I will be seventy three seasons old. You have been asleep since that battle with Athol. He used a spell on you that no one had ever seen before. We tried every mage we could find to help free you but none could.

"Later while we had Athol's notebook we looked in it, but it didn't contain the spell he used so we still had no idea of how to free you. But in the end it didn't seem to matter. While the rest of us aged around you, you stayed the same. You didn't age one day. I prayed that you would come back to me, but you remained asleep. But I don't fault you, you fell trying to protect us.

"The village grew into a small town while you were asleep, and depending on when you awake, it may grow even larger still. The people still look to you as their leader and they pledge to wait until the day you returned to lead them into a new era. The innovations you left them are so much greater than anything they have to work with still to this day.

"But I want you to know you were the only one in my heart from the first day we met and later it was even greater when I said "I do" and I had never deviated from that. I will remain yours and only yours until the day I die. You will always be my only love. My diaries contains different events that took place, various decisions that I made in your name, and how we got by day to day.

"Goodbye my love, I will always love you," said the image of Beth before it faded away.

Staggering to the door Wolfgang called out to the shocked men.

"What, what season it?!" asked Wolfgang excitedly.

The men were confused, but told Wolfgang the season, and in doing some quick math, he realized it had been just over 610 seasons since he had last seen Beth and all his friends.

Slamming the door he stumbled back to his seat at the table and looked down at the diary.

Opening the cover he was struck by the caption on the first page:

"To my loving husband who will always have my heart now and forever"

Realizing that she was now truly gone, and that he would never see Beth again, Wolfgang a cried out in anguish.

Suddenly something strange happened and his power activated again, but this time it was different than either of the previous times before.

The combination of being altered by Athol's spell and the grief from losing everyone he had ever known strained his mind and his ability until it lashed out uncontrollably.

Wolfgang collapsed across the table stunned as his power seemed to go out of control.

Two of the men in the next room as well screamed out grasping their heads as they suddenly felt the shock of a pain that they had never felt before.

As Wolfgang lay in his stupor suddenly images started quickly flashing through his mind.

He saw a Campbell's soup commercials. Then it switched over to a History channel special on the history of plumbing. Yet again his mind recalled a TNT special on the history of War. Then yet another was the A&E's history of the computer and the modern age.

His mind quickly and continuously flashed back to various things he saw over the 610 season slumber. Each image was appearing to come quicker and quicker to his mind. While Wolfgang had been in his suspended animation, his power has crossed the dimensional barrier and tapped once again into a world totally foreign to his own.

The dreams he had been having as a child were from that world, but while he was trapped the only thing his mind could do was focus on that world and what he could glean from it.

Suddenly Wolfgang had total recall of everything he had ever seen while in trapped in his animation. But then his power went a step further.

The two men who cried out were very low level mages. They were both around first circle but never seemed to have enough power to progress beyond that so they stopped practicing.

One was a fire mage and the other a green mage who could work with ice. As their vision cleared and the pain lessened, they found that they could hear each other's thoughts.

Shocked they looked at each other as they tried to figure out what was going on.

Wolfgang meanwhile was slowly coming to and he could hear the argument going on in his head.

"How are you able to do this!" said one voice

"It's not me, it must have been you!" said another.

"No I've never done anything like this before," said the first

"Could you both quiet down, you're giving me a headache," said Wolfgang before he realized he didn't use his mouth.

"Master Wolfgang?" asked the first voice questioning the third voice.

Rising from the table Wolfgang quickly crossed the room and snatched opened the door to the looks of the shocked men

"Ok, someone tell me what the Hell is going on!?" demanded Wolfgang.

After he calmed down, and using trial and error Wolfgang realized that he and the two men who were linked could now hear each others thoughts.

Remember how Athol shut him out, Wolfgang tried it, as did the men, and they found that they could prevent the others from hearing them just by willing it to be so. They could still sense they were joined, but they gained privacy now as well

Later as Wolfgang was locked in his study reading his wife's diaries all the stress of the seasons came back, but he read on early about Madeline's sacrifice to kill Athol.

He felt bad for her because Beth described how she had a hard time trying to adjust and how passionately she asked for the chance to die to wipe out her vicious nightmares. He remembered her and he hoped that being free of her life in the harem would have ended her nightmare. He was sorry it wasn't so.

She also talked about how she turned the rumors of how Athol died into a curse. She said that the people were still talking about it in her twilight seasons.

Wolfgang actually cried at that point. The full weight of never seeing Beth again hit him. He would never again hold her, hear her laughter, feel her sense of humor, or see her quick wit. It had all been lost to him forever.

Over the course of a few weeks he had locked himself into his study and repeatedly read her different diaries over and over again until he felt as if he had lived those times with her and his friends.

While he was still grieving, it was hard to make the change from what just felt like yesterday that he saw his wife and friends, but he knew that he had to get on with his life. He had to give it an honest attempt.

Also during this time Wolfgang started to read Athol's notebook. Well it was a journal really, but he had documented all his atrocities as well as various spells created in it. The only spell that seemed to be missing was the one used on him.

Wolfgang, still believing that he had no talent for spells, was amazed the first time he called up a fireball spell and he took out a window as it went off in his hand. He was totally surprised. It took a while to get over as he never could do spells freely before.

But his greatest shock was when the two low level mages came to see him later and told him that their magical power appeared to have increased after they became linked. They told him that they used to be just barely level one but they were now at least almost level two casters.

Hearing what they said, and feeling that something was out of the ordinary, Wolfgang wanted to test it again. Wolfgang realized that it must have been himself who was the one who linked them, because he remembered accessing minds twice before in the past. He asked them if there were any other mages that were willing to allow him link them.

The two men asked around and found two other level two mages interested in trying to link up with them, after they were promised that they could still maintain their own separate thoughts easily.

The first man they brought linked in easily. And the other two mentioned that they felt their power grow a small little bit again. The man who linked in said he clearly felt more powerful than before.

But the second new man, even though he said he wanted to join, really didn't and resisted. Wolfgang found that he couldn't mentally link him into the group. After getting the truth from him, Wolfgang realized that the target had to be willing to join. But he was able to learn something from that as well.

The new man decided to try to leave the group after the test, but found that he was now unable to do so. Wolfgang tried to set him free as well, but he didn't seem to be able to break him free. That told Wolfgang that if one joined, it was for life it seemed.

Using this as a basis, Wolfgang was sure that he could network everyone together who was willing, and by doing so the sum of whole would be far more powerful than the individual parts.

But the fist time Wolfgang used the word Network everyone gave him strange look. Then it dawned on him he used a word not from his world because it fit the situation. They had no idea of what a network was.

Also during this time Wolfgang realized that he had stopped having dreams of the other world. Now all his dreams appeared mundane and normal to him.

Wolfgang tried to link in others with no magical ability, but found that they had to have at least a tiny bit of measurable skill to able to join his network. But if they could join, then they would all share in a mutual pooling of power that they could all pull from.

The other thing they found out was that while they shared power, they all still needed to study the spells for themselves because they couldn't pass them along through the network. A spell that one user could use didn't translate into the same spell for another. They still had to practice and memorize them.

Wolfgang lost his earlier ability to read and borrow spells from the mind of his target, but now being able to freely use magic, meant that this was something that Wolfgang was willing to give up to do what he had always wanted to do.

As Wolfgang acclimated himself with his new surroundings he started making much needed changes.

He made changes to his earlier designs in farming and water purification, in sanitary conditions, and using his new found knowledge, he realized where he went wrong in some of his earlier designs in clothing, and fixed them the best he could using the materials at hand.

Losing much of his earlier embarrassment he went on a crusade to educate women on many of his ideas that were lost while he was away, and was surprised at the changes made for bras, underwear, and zippers for clothing.

But he felt the need to go into great detail and explain the need and usage of "sanitary" items, especially for women, which would increase their life expectancy.

In all the people found a lot of his ideas strange at first, as he went against everything they had been taught for seasons, but when they gave it an honest attempt they found their lives drastically easier.

But as he worked he wasn't sure when the world would evolve to a point where he could make some of his truly revolutionary items.

For example, he realized that it would be a long time before electricity happened. And he needed it because he was really curious about the "computer" thing from his memory, but realized the challenges in creating a circuit board not to mention he knew he would have to program it before it would be of any use.

Having a total recall of things that interested him was useful, but at times frustrating as well.

Also with his being gone for over 600 seasons his network was totally gone of the various spies he had in place. He immediately set about building it again, but the problem he had was that not many wanted to leave once they lived with his changes. But eventually he did find a few that were burdened with travel lust and utilized them.

Always remembering his father's words, Wolfgang formed two different teams of his "linked" mages and of Warriors that were expected to cross train in various weapons to provide security though out the island.

Anyone who was willing to travel and spy for him was likewise trained and he made sure to well reward them for being will to leave the island. He also had them trained to recruit any who looked promising to send back to the island to meet with him.

Wolfgang was surprised to see that the people were waiting for his return, but he remembered in one of Beth's diaries that she mentioned that she had spun the tale that when he returned that he would make daily life easier for them to view him as a legend before his return.

They even kept up the representatives that voiced their concerns at the quarterly meetings.

But as time went on, his experiments, and his social revolution of the island slowly went on daily, one thing became clear, Wolfgang wasn't aging. The people that he saw every day weren't as young as they used to be.

Even when Daniel and Tyrone came to visit with their families he could clearly remember when he first saw them and they both were just fifteen season old boys. Now they both had kids that old, among others.

And that was the biggest problem with his network, as time went on nodes would die off and he would need to replace them. And as they died off they took their portion of power that was contributed with them.

But early his apparent immortality hit him when he worked at perfecting a mirror to quit using beaten metal that he could hang on his wall, and it became a daily reminded that he really wasn't aging a day.

Athol's spell changed more than just his power. It changed something fundamentally inside him. And every time he saw his shock of white hair it reminded him of who he was and what he lost.

But even though he tried to live peaceably circumstances refused to allow it...

"What are we going to do about legend that was known as Wolfgang on the island nation of Pastial? The people are telling everyone he is back." asked Seamus.

Seamus was currently the head of the local mages guild in a neighboring kingdom. He counted the money that was coming into the guild to fund him and pay for his many needs. But lately some of his lower level members were leaving the guild to seek out Wolfgang.

"He must be a pretender. There is no way a man who should have been dead over centuries ago is still alive," said Damien, who was another officer of the guild.

"Well he's cutting into our guilds profits by pretending to be him and we need that stopped. He must be trying to rule the world. I mean he's supposed to have stopped that unbelievable legend of a mystical Battlemage who could use both weapons and magic by fighting him to a standstill on that island. Bah, like that was ever true," said Seamus to the room.

"Regardless if it is or it isn't, right now people are curious enough to try and find out," said Morigan, another officer of the guild.

"Well we can't expect any assistance from any of the neighboring mages guilds. Those worthless peasants are too busy trying to encroach into our business. It was all we could to keep them out of our territory before and expand into theirs. Now because of this legend we're losing much of our base and our livelihood. He must be stopped!" said Seamus.

"What do you suggest we do?" asked James who was the last officer.

"Well since you asked..." started Seamus.

Seamus plan was a simple one.

He secretly hired the other mages guild through a third party, along with fighters from various other guilds as well, and formed a coalition to fight with the pretender and kill him.

But the various mages from the different guilds didn't get along well and fought amongst themselves before the battle ever began. The Warriors, who were disgusted with them, often separated and left them to their own devices. They were being paid to protect the mages, not listen to their bickering.