Serial Micro Fiction: Gears of Myrekal – Part 3

Now everyone in Ansparia, and a lucky few in other realms of existence, know that the race of Gnomes have such technological precision so as to be the epitome of mechanical engineering. So when Kezik said the Gnomes are unmatched except for the Vaki, that was high praise. High praise and more than a little disdain.

Vaki are a strange race of creatures in Ansparia. They are generally not seen as refined enough to be considered one of the Civilized Races, nor are they devoid of empathy as the Uncivilized Races. To each group, they belong to the other, but in all reality they seek to stay out of the racial classifications altogether.

This desire to remove themselves has led them to develop ways to blend in. Not being innately magical, they invented contraptions to shroud their identities, disguise themselves as another, or render invisible altogether. While the Gnomes may have invented time, or at least the classification systems and instruments by which time could be measured, the Vaki created a distortion of reality.

This is what worried Kezik. No one knew the motives of the Vaki. If they felt the need to steal a Gnomish device, they certainly had a plan for it. But within the distortion of their reality, there was no knowing what that plan was.

Kezik knew he had to retrieve the Gears of Myrekal and to do that he would need to enter their world and play their game. He set the feather on a glass dish on the floor in the center of his workshop. He fished around in one drawer and pulled out a short rod, perhaps six inches in length. IT had a tiny button on the side. Aiming the rod at the feather, he pressed the button. Silently, a violet beam struck the feather and engulfed it in a shimmering film. It pulsated three times, each brighter than the last. When it had stopped, a shadowy archway beckoned him into its unknown dangers.