5 Welcome to Nuvia!

"Ow…What just happened?" My vision's blurry.

My body starts to ache, and I feel something warm and soft under me. My vision becomes clearer, "What the?" I look to see that I'm on top of Eliza and our faces meet. Her face flushes red, "GET OFF ME!" she yells. She pushes me off with monstrous strength, causing me to fall on my back. Confused, I say, "Hey! That wasn't my fault. I didn't mean to fall on you. Either way, what happe-" she cuts me off mid-sentence.

"Look" She points in a direction behind me. I turn around wiping my clothes from the dirt and some grass. I then see…the greatest and most beautiful view in my life. I saw the sunset on the horizon to my right—beaming sunlight for miles. In front of me is a huge city within a bubble-like barrier. I look around, and it looks we landed on a hill. It seems like we are about a few kilometers away. I squint my eyes to see a bit farther; around the perimeter were towers and from them—I could see machines shooting out some turquoise light from inside a black barred cage. It seems like that is what emits the barrier.

For an explanation, I look back at Eliza, but she knew what I was looking at, so she answered. "Oh, those? I'm glad you asked; those are the Divine Barriers. They protect the city from attacks/danger." I nod as she continues. "There are four Divine Barrier generators at each corner of the city." I look at a tower near the generators and see some intimidating buff guards slacking off and playing cards. She looked at me with her peripheral side of the eye and noticed where my curiosity has taken me. "Those are the watchtowers and where you go to replenish the Divine Barriers power."

"And you would replenish it with Magic power?" I say boastfully. "Correct! But not just any kind of magic." Eliza looks impressed and I get a bit nervous for some reason. I get an eager look on my face and wait for the answer. "This barrier is no ordinary barrier. It has been made by the Magicians Round Table, who are the strongest magicians in Cerene. And my father happens to be one of them." She says pridefully. Eliza continues, "It requires a significant amount of Divine Magic. Hence, its name Divine Barrier, this type of magic is the strongest type of magic to wield and to produce such a huge barrier to cover the entire city--isn't an easy task."

"Can you use Divine Magic?" I asked. Eliza lets out a sarcastic laugh, "Ha! I wish I could, but you need to be very adept with wielding normal Magic first." I wonder if I can use Divine Magic. Since I'm this so-called, 'Pawn Wielder'. Or even better; a stronger type of magic that only I can use. I smile and look around the sunset going down near the horizon and just take in all the information with a deep breath. Wait minute, I haven't asked her what a Pawn Wielder is yet. Before I ask any more questions, I go and sit down to think about the thousands of new things I can learn about this world, but I slip and rub my back in pain. "Ow. Why do I keep hurting myself…" I sigh then, I look up and there was Eliza's hand held out. I take her hand and she helps me up. Her hand was soft and a bit cold.

"Kima." She says turning away from me. She walks over to the edge of the hill. She cups her hands behind her back and turns around to smile at me. It gets darker and the city's lights turn on. With the immaculate timing Eliza does this, the white flower petals near us picked up and swirled around us. My heart jumps, she looks so beautiful and elegant.

"Welcome to Nuvia!" She says--My sights were only on her now, my heart is beating fast.

All I felt was something warm in my chest. I reply, "T-thanks, I hope we can get along." I grinned with her.

As the flowers fall back to the ground, I get up with this feeling of reassurance, that whatever happens, I don't have to worry. I think to myself, she's an odd one but, something tells me that this girl, is someone I could trust. I get up and Eliza says "Shall we get going? It's getting late and we need to get to the headmaster." I nod and say "Oh I forgot about that. Yeah sure." She starts to walk down the hill and I follow behind her. Around us were tiny specs of light, they looked like fireflies, but they helped us see a bit better. The slight breeze enhanced the experience, this world was so beautiful. The vast plains outside of the Cerene and how nature is; it feels surreal.

As we walk side by side I ask Eliza, "Hey, remember when you called me this 'Pawn Wielder'? When you first showed up—what was that all about?" Eliza glanced at me and said, "I'm not supposed to say anything about that until we got to the headmaster's office. So, I will just say this. You are essentially the chosen one to wield a sword with incredible power and it will aid you in eradicating evil." I smirk and get excited, this is every fantasy loving person's dream! I hope I'm not dreaming. I pinch my cheek to confirm, "Ok, I'm not dreaming." Eliza looks at me confused, she must think I'm weird.

It looks like it will take a while to reach the city, so I try to spark up a conversation. "Um, so does this city have some sort of leader or government?" She walks while looking at the city from the distance and says, "You remember when I said the strongest magicians in Cerene are the Magicians Round Table?"

"Yeah?" I reply

"The city of Cerene is run by the Magicians Round Table. They're more than just strong, they're very wealthy and each member represents their own race, plus they come from a noble bloodline. They make up rules and regulations for the citizens here and of course, protect us all. Everyone consults the Round Table for a lot of things in the city." An Aristocracy huh. I just hope these guys aren't jerks.

"What kind of races live in Nuvia?" I ask.

"Well, there are the Vampires, the Elves, Humans, Beastials, half-demons, and fairies. We all come from different territories outside of Cerene, but this city is home to all races."

As we finish the conversation, we get to the front gates that lead into the city. I see one of the barrier generators near the gate on my right, on top of a smooth gray cylinder block. Eliza comes up to me and says "Kima you stay here, I'll get them to open a portion of the barrier for us." I obeyed like a dog since it would be stupid to wander off. The guards freak out, standing immediately back up at attention. The guards near the tower start to whisper but I was close enough to hear the gossip. One of the short-stocked guards whispered, "Hey, is that Lady Sternbriar?" Another guard who was tall and skinny who bent over to whisper back, "Yeah, it is. I wonder why she's out so late, don't students at the academy have curfews?" I look at them from the corner of my eyes and my hands start to tense up and get sweaty. I was getting nervous because I'm the reason why she's out here but 'Lady Sternbriar'? I guess that's how what you get called as the daughter of a noble bloodline. I start to ponder, and the guards look at me. They inspect me from head to toe with such a serious look, like I'm some sort of alien.

"Hey, what kind of clothes are those? He looks like such a weakling." The short stocked said laughing with his buddy. I yell out annoyed, "I can hear you!" They back up and get into the tower laughing. I could hear their armor rattle and clank with every step.

"My clothes don't look that bad…" I inspect myself and it is dirty and has some grass stains from the crash landing we had.

I look at Eliza talking to the guard; It was dark out and I couldn't see as well. The only two light sources were the generator and two well-lit torches. You could see the flames dancing in the dark.

Eliza comes back to tell me the news on how they will open the barrier.

"This is it, Kima!" She looks straight ahead, and I don't say a word but gulp, as I watch an opening from the barrier dissipate; allowing just enough room for us to walk through.

Here I go. My new life has begun, I say to myself.

Suddenly, Eliza grabs my hand and she starts dragging me into the city. We run past a variety of different shops. I could smell food from local cafes, restaurants, and even taverns. The city is filled with life. Everyone seemed so happy. I get reminded by what Eliza told me—on how there are different races here. I saw fairies hovering from place to place, elves walking pridefully and appeared very sophisticated, Vampires hanging around with humans, and half-demons. There were also beastials helping merchants carry big loads off their carriage. This makes the atmosphere very calming, seeing everyone get along. I noticed that all these shops had one similar aspect. They all had magic within or outside of them, the merchants would use these machines to distribute products or food stores that have magic machines also, to help them charge people etc. The use of magic was everywhere, it's like everyone can use it for about anything. Everything's so pretty and people used magic so vibrant and lively. I snap out of amazement due to Eliza letting go of my hand and try to catch up.

We eventually slow down to stop. It looked like we were in the heart of the city. There were buildings all around us--this place seemed to have everything. When we finally came to a halt, I start to catch my breath holding myself up on my knees. "I really am… out of shape. Eliza, this place... is amazing." I speak in between breaths. I turn my head for eye contact and both of her fangs peeked out of her mouth. At that moment, I realized what Vampires do in movies to humans. I tried covering my neck, "Ah, Eliza. You're not gonna suck my blood, right? Haha..." I say with some leaking laughs. I say her name again to see if she'd snap out of it. "Eliza?" I back up, but then she snaps out of it.

"Oh! I'm so sorry. Forgive me for acting like this around you. I'm just kind of hungry, hehe...It's just instinct. I don't drink human blood, believe it or not. We have a rule in which we can't feed on civilians. We have blood packages to help us throughout the day, but I forgot to take some before I came to earth." Eliza seems a bit embarrassed, but it's kind of cute. "I'm a noble, I'm supposed to act calm and collected. I just get overly excited to go on missions and head into town since I'm always home due to family affairs." I pat her head. I don't know what came over me, but I felt like this was comforting her. "W-what are you doing? Stop patting my head like I'm a kid." She looks at me a bit frustrated and embarrassed. The crowds of people talking, and walking makes the atmosphere less awkward.

I remove my hand off her head. "Eliza, I see you as someone with unexpected energy. When you showed up on earth, you were pretty scary. But here on Nuvia, you seem like a completely different person, and I like it. You seem fun and interesting to be around with. Just don't bite my neck, that's all." I try to make a joke to lighten up the mood, giving away a small chuckle too. "Thank you, Kima. Time to meet the headmaster." She thanks me with a soft smile and I say, "Yeah, let's go!"

As we proceed to head to the school, we can see it in the distance on a big hill. It's lit up with lights and a huge spire stuck out--just like a castle.

It's time for the headmaster to explain in depth on why I am here.