A Tale That Dawned [Book 4 of Selvina's Tale series]

Chapter 13: Divine Decision

"You mean to tell me that flight is something everyone in your world can achieve?" King Arthur asked Selvina curiously.

Selvina giggled at the king's deeply interested expression. They had ridden to the northern edge of Queen Marian's kingdom, where wooden or stone watch towers surveyed the forested border between New Avalon and Noyr. During that time, the two had begun to share knowledge of one another. King Arthur had stated that he should know something about the one person whose fate decided that of all of Faeryum. Selvina, wishing to know more about the king herself, was eager to answer and ask in return.

"We can't fly like birds do," she explained. "We fly on these machines called airplanes. They have big engines that lift them off the ground and let them fly."

"What do they look like?"

"Um, well, like big tubes of metal with long, metallic wings. I know it might sound weird to you but it's all true. Captain Hook didn't believe me when I told him either."

"Fascinating," the king said. "I do believe you, Selvina, and I wish that perhaps one day I can see one of these airplanes you speak of. I do not know how that would happen, but if there was a way, I would take it."

"Why is a plane so fascinating to you anyway? You have dragons and griffins and other creatures that fly and—to me—are way cooler than airplanes."

"These are creatures of nature, Selvina. They were born to fly and thus they can. It is what they were meant to do. Humans such as you and I were not meant to fly and yet in your world they have mastered it. To break the laws of nature and claim victory over something normally impossible is what fascinates me."

Selvina bobbed her eyebrows up and down and mumbled, "Well, we also went to the moon, and sent machines to other planets."

"Blasphemy!" King Arthur blurted, wide-eyed.

Selvina laughed. "No, it's true!"

"And you did all of this without any magic whatsoever?"

Selvina nodded. "There isn't any magic in my world..."

King Arthur furrowed his brow. "I doubt that. Perhaps it is only hidden well."

"There isn't any. People have looked for it all their lives and never found it. It's just stories and movies that have magic in them. It isn't real."

"How can it be real here and not in your world?"

Selvina shrugged. "I don't know. I sometimes wish it was..."

"I think you simply need to look harder for it. Merlin says magic is all around us and is forever within grasp, for those who know how to find it. Perhaps no one in your world knows how to do so."

"Maybe. I don't know... We've been doing well enough without it all this time. If it does exist, which I don't think it does, then we don't really need it anyway."

"Perhaps," said the king before gazing up at a round, stone tower they were riding by. The archers atop of it waved in greeting and he and Selvina waved back. A glint of sunlight pierced through the clouds and King Arthur raised his hand to shield his eyes. "What of your gods, do they not teach your people about magic?"

"Gods?" Selvina asked, wincing her eyes from the sunbeam. "If our world has any gods they don't speak to anyone. I don't think my world has any gods either."

"Well, now I know this to be false. Every world has gods. How else would your world exist without them?"

Selvina shrugged. "It just naturally exists without any gods' help."