Aetherbound: Solitary Quests in Magical Realms

Andres was originally a high school math teacher. Over time because of his curious nature, he started getting bored of teaching the same things and wanted more in life. He found escape in reading old mythological stories and fantasy books. But over time, it didn't cut it either. He tried to immerse himself more, and In his heart, he hoped the things he yearned for, the stuff of fantasy, maybe weren't so out of this world after all. In this light, he quit his job and became an archaeologist. Andres was looking around the world for a glimpse of the supernatural. When he wasn't on duty, he would research other archaeological wonders such as the Shroud of Turin, Gobekli Tepe, Voynich manuscript and The Cochno Stone. However, Andres didn't find what he was looking for. He searched more, different countries, different cities, different mountains, but nothing seemed to work. Although his reputation skyrocketed because of his work, and he was acknowledged as one of the best archaeologists, he wanted more. As he got older, he became even more frantic. He did even more excavation and assembled a more extraordinary team of talented workers. And the day had arrived. Andres hit Jackpot. In one of the excavations, he found an impressive amount of research notes and books, as well as demolished architecture. However, the site was very odd. "These houses look like they had been eroded over time; however, looking deeper inside the materials, they don't seem to show any form of decay; the roughened-up surface appears artificial. Whoever made these want us to think this place is a thing of history," said Andres to himself. He found this very mysterious, hid it from the excavation team and the other researchers, and decided to close the site to prevent them from discovering it. Andres started digging by himself and started to find more unusual stones. He was more excited as he searched more and more until he found some highly damaged pages. They were ripped apart from books rather than being individual notes. "It was a great idea to close the site. I have found my opportunity, it seems," said Andres. Tears started to form while he read the notes and fell from both his eyes. His eyes were wide as valleys. He couldn't stop reading. "My life's work; it's complete."

Andres said while holding a paper which was in inexplicably excellent condition. It read, "Magic always existed on Earth and never disappeared. It is just so that it is concentrated in peculiar locations and cannot be accessed anywhere else. Magic has been talked about and fantasised about in literature and legends because of rogue mages. They were using condensed magic stones to reach havoc in the surface world. And the reason it was believed to be nothing more than tales and myths is simple. Because we Enclavians hide it. Some people live on the surface with humans to track their behaviour and prevent some of our uncontrolled citizens from uncovering the veil to the public. Most of the time, we don't even have to hide it since when people talk about Magic and the supernatural are considered to be crazy. We only intervene in big events and usually associate them with religion and call it a miracle of god. I wrote these here because we either left Earth or perished. Us Enclivians have discovered a way to travel to different dimensions. We plan to leave Earth soon, so I am writing this letter for the future humans who might find it. It is a crime to reveal these. However, since we are leaving anyways, The Mystic Guardians are unlikely to find it. This note is so that if you travel to another realm, I might learn about what happened on Earth. The Mystic Guardians should have destroyed the city before we left. However, I have used significant amounts of mana to protect these documents, so they should be fine. Find them, and you will know how to use Magic and even travel to another dimension. This should be the first paper you find since I hid it above the city, where I also have left many clues so that an archaeologist might start excavating there. Best of luck." Andres was left speechless. He wiped his tears with his sleeves, and a smile crept up. He was grinning ear to ear. He had never been this excited in his life before. It was as if he was on drugs. His 58 years old body now felt like a youth. His airways opened, his veins expanded, and blood flowed faster as his heart beat faster and faster. He started frantically laughing, howling almost. The scene was uncanny, an old man in a pit in the ground with a piece of paper in his hand laughing his lungs out. His fingers tingled. He picked the shovel back and started digging. "I can't stop now; my dream is right before me," said Andres. He dug and dug. His old body was in misery, but his mind was as sharp as a razor he couldn't stop. He declared the site hazardous, closed it for excavation, and sent his team to work on another site. He said the work had exhausted him, and he would take a break. But he returned continued digging, and even built a new house near the site to be even faster. Andres used every tool, giant cranes and, excavators, power tools. After eight years, new and better robots came to commercial use, and Andres bought and programmed as many as he could using his savings and started excavating with them, which sped things up considerably. "I found it," said Andres with joy while he held up a book, weird stones and gadgets in his hands. "These are what the mysterious Enclavian mentioned." Andres thought to himself. He rushed to his house, sat at his research table, and started reading the book.