Page 88 of Into the Isle

“Excuse me, Initiate Linmyrr, am I boring you?” Hersir Thorvi asked from the stage.

I blushed like a tomato. I hadn’t realized she’d started lecturing. “Erm, no, ma’am. Sorry.”

The professor went back to her spiel, pacing to the other side of the stage. She moved to the chalkboard behind her to write on it.

“No, you infuriating girl,” Magnus said, returning to our conversation like he hadn’t been interrupted. “Because I won’t . . . be there.”

“Where?”

“Nice try.”

“Initiate Feldraug,” Hersir Thorvi called out over her shoulder, her chalk pausing on the board. Damn that woman has some good hearing. “I don’t care if you’re undead or unfed, you’re being uncouth. Do I need to separate you two like children?”

Students behind us snickered.

Unlike me, Magnus didn’t blush. I wasn’t sure if he was capable of it. “No, ma’am. Apologies.”

Thorvi turned back to the board.

Magnus glared at me. “Talk to Arne.”

With that, I picked up my pen and pad and started to write as the Hersir finished her schematics on the chalkboard. She stepped away from the board and gestured at the two names: The King Who Saw, and The Deceiver in Gold.

“As I told you, we would be revisiting these two men. They are integral to Vikingrune Academy’s history,” Hersir Thorvi said. She pointed with her chalk at The King Who Saw. “King Dannon, leader of an abundant human kingdom.” She pointed at The Deceiver in Gold. “Lord Talasin, a royal Ljosalfar elf who inhabited a kingdom in the world of Alfheim.”

Ljosalfar. Light elf. I wrote the names and words down. I knew the nine realms from my own studies, and knew that Alfheim, home of the elves, was supposedly close in distance to Asgard and Vanaheim, the lands of the gods. Their vicinity to the gods was to show how they were a favored race among the pantheon of our people.

Jotting down my notes, listening intently, I quickly forgot about my not-so-clandestine conversation with Magnus. I became engrossed in Hersir Thorvi’s tale, believing that learning all I could here would somehow aid me in what I wanted to truly know.

“These two were once allies and, more importantly, friends. Stalwart defenders of one another and their lands. This, of course, would not last.” Thorvi cleared her throat. “Smashing their names together was the uncreative attempt we made at naming their war: the Taldan War, as our interruptive friend Magnus here so expertly told us yesterday.”

I chuckled, but it was partly because of Thorvi’s delivery more than her making fun of Magnus. Nonetheless, I caught him glaring at me again, and ignored him with a small smirk on my lips.

The Hersir continued. “It was during one of their wars together that King Dannon and Lord Talasin discovered the Runesphere. This, of course, is the legendary magical artifact believed to be where our runeshaping powers stem from.”

I blinked, writing furiously. Glancing over my shoulder and to my right, it seemed I was the only one taking such tidy notes.

Though Thorvi had said “of course,” this was news to me. I’d never heard of the Runesphere in my life, even from my studies at Selby Village. Just shows how inadequate and incomplete our records are in that tiny carved-out section of the world.

I wanted to know more about the Runesphere, but Thorvi was already moving on. She said, “We will have plenty of time this semester to dive deeper into the mechanics and focal points of the Taldan War. For now, we’re giving it a macro look. Because there is a point to this story.”

She continued pacing, continued talking with her hands stuffed behind her black robe. Her frizzy hair bounced as she moved.

“King Dannon and Lord Talasin were allied because of Dannon’s marriage to Talasin’s elven sister, Lady Amisara. Their friendship and kingdoms were strong. Midgard and Alfheim prospered together.

“However, the Runesphere became a point of contention. The elves, being the magical folk they were, studied the artifact and realized its true power before the humans did. As such, Lord Talasin wanted to keep the sphere in Alfheim. The elves, being the greedy people they are, wanted to hide and cloak the Runesphere from Dannon and the humans, who had just as strong of a claim to the Runesphere as the Ljosalfar.”

Hersir Thorvi stopped pacing and faced the students, dipping her head to stare over the rims of her huge glasses. She had a severe expression on her wrinkled face. “King Dannon was given the moniker ‘The King Who Saw’ because he had a vision. His prophecy showed the elves bringing great destruction to Dannon’s kingdom, enslaving his people. A heart-wrenching betrayal by his friend and confidant, Lord Talasin.”

She lifted her chin defiantly, shuffling away down the stage. “So, Dannon did what any caring leader would do and took the fight to the elves before they could bring it to us. The alliance was shattered, the Runesphere was lost to Alfheim, and the elves became our enemies. Ljosalfar and Dokkalfar elves alike—we can trust none of them after they showed their greed and true colors. They shut us out of their world.”

She finished her spiel without ceremony, and faced the class once again.

I furrowed my brow and raised my hand. When she called on me, I said, “How can we know King’s Dannon prophecy was true if he, uh, jumped the gun and preemptively attacked them?”

Some students hissed behind me, not enjoying my rhetoric.

“Preemptive strikes are crucial in war,” Thorvi said. “While we cannot know for certain, Initiate Linmyrr, other visions from the King Who Saw were recorded in painstaking detail during his lifetime. Visions that came true. So we can deduce the facts.”

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