Chapter 10 - Book 1 of Death of Magic Series
"Meeting an elf for the first time is like seeing a lion in the wild for the first time" - Sara's journal
Sara knocked on the door and entered the room where Brenda was staying. Brenda still looked pale, like she was half hoping that the events of last night had been a terrible dream. She looked at Sara warily.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“We’re in London, near Kensington Palace Green if you’re familiar with the area,” Sara said matter-of-factly.
“Who are you?” Brenda asked.
“I’m Sara. We spoke over the phone.” She wanted to continue, but Brenda broke in.
“There is no job offer, right? Tell me why I’m here… please.” Brenda’s voice was more calm and accepting than Sara would have expected.
“Not exactly the job we discussed. There is a job offer, but it’s not in research, it’s in teaching, and it’s quite unique,” said Sara.
She paused, letting Brenda absorb the details slowly. “Please take a seat, Brenda. This will take a while to explain,” she said, walking across the room and sitting down by the small dining table at the far wall.
There was a bottle of wine on the table, along with two glasses. “Please have a seat. We’ve all had a long week. I promise to answer any questions I can. I am sure you have a lot,” Sara said in a calming voice.
“Shall we start with some context as to why you are here?” Sara asked, pouring the dark wine into both glasses and waiting patiently for Brenda’s next move.
Brenda eyed Sara and the wine. Despite what felt like the early hour, Brenda looked like she really needed a drink right now. Brenda seemed like a kind person – the type you immediately feel comfortable with. She slowly crossed to the table, and sat down. She took a sip of the wine and looked at Sara without saying anything.
“That’s better,” said Sara, “let’s start from the beginning.” She looked at Brenda and nodded toward the glass of wine.
“I work for an organization called BRHD. It is a very old company with deep roots in science, defense technologies, agriculture, and more. BRHD has many branches, one of which is secret. The reason for the entire company is to fund and protect that secret branch. This has been done for more than five hundred years, despite the fact that most of our 10,000 employees do not even know this branch exists. The name of the secret branch is the Brotherhood Reception Committee,” she said, looking into Brenda’s eyes, “My family were among the founders of the BRHD in the 15th century… Alongside your family.”
Brenda did not say anything, but she turned noticeably paler and set down her glass.
“You were supposed to work here as well – it is a family business, if you understand what I’m saying.” Sara looked at Brenda, letting the information sink in. “Your entire family line has worked at BRHD for many generations.”
“But I didn’t, and neither did my parents,” said Brenda wonderingly.
“I don’t know why they left the fold,” Sara said. “It’s not as thought we didn’t try to convince them to stay.” Sara said, noticing she slightly annoyed.
“This doesn’t make any sense… What does it all have to do with me?” Brenda asked, “What is this ‘secret branch’? Is it connected to why I’m here?” she asked.
“Getting straight to the point, I like you already,” Sara said, giving Brenda an appraising look. “Yes, this is exactly why we are here. We are executing the mission of the Brotherhood Reception Committee, and in fact the entire purpose of BRHD.” Sara paused, drawing a breath and waiting. It felt like a staring competition, Brenda waiting for Sara to continue and Sara waiting for Brenda to ask.
Brenda broke first. “Which was?” she asked, eyebrows raised inquiringly.
Sara studied her as if considering whether she was ready for the truth, then sighed, seemingly deciding. “You studied anthropology, right?”
The question surprised Brenda. “Yes… what does that have to do with anything?”
“Have you learned about myths? Greek, medieval German, Nordic, English myths?” Sara asked.
“A little. Why? What do myths have to do with it?” answered Brenda, sounding increasingly annoyed.
“What if I told you that some of these myths were not myths at all, but a distant memory of a real world, long forgotten?” Sara asked. She smiled at the look of shock and disbelief on Brenda’s face.
“Sounds like I’m offering you the red pill, right? Shall I continue?” she added.
Brenda nodded slowly.
“Well, as a matter of fact, most of the myths from the 1500s and 1600s are actually true. They’ve been changed through the years and a lot of misinformation and false details were added to them, but at their core they are true.” Sara leaned forward. “Around 500 years ago we lived in a very different Earth, full of humans, but also full of a lot of Magical creatures… Magical creatures that vanished from this world and were forgotten, apart from in children’s stories.”
Sara took a long sip of her wine, letting Brenda process what she’d said, and then she added, “The secret role of BRHD, through its secret branch the Brotherhood Reception Committee, is to welcome these creatures when they return, and to ensure their safety and well-being in the modern world.”
They both sat in silence for a long while – but this was not a friendly intimate silence, it was an awkward, tense one.
“You mean unicorns and dwarfs and elves?” Brenda finally asked, in a slightly cynical tone.
“Yes,” said Sara without flinching, “and we have the first specimen in the next room.”
“A unicorn?” asked Brenda with a half-smile, her disbelief palpable.
“No, an elf,” said Sara flatly, ignoring the cynical tone completely. “Your job is to educate this elf about the modern world and to slowly reintroduce him to human society,” she added with the same flat voice. “Amongst many other things,” she thought.
They repeated the silent waiting game.
“You gotta be shitting me,” Brenda exploded, on the verge of being fed up with all this ludicrous talk.
“I shit you not. In fact, it’s high time you met him. I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and doubts, but we’ll have plenty of time to answer them all, don’t worry.” She looked sympathetically at Brenda.
“Shall we counter your first assumption, which is that I am completely insane, and go meet Valor? I hope the clothes we arranged for you fit you well?” she asked, looking Brenda over from top to bottom.
Brenda suddenly looked like she was very aware that she was not wearing her own clothes.
“Yes, they fit really well,” Brenda said, smoothing her hands over her comfortable new hiking pants. “Thank you,” she added.
“No worries at all.” Sara seemed to be back to her cheerful self. “Let’s go and introduce you to your first elf.”
Following the other woman out of the room, Brenda asked herself, why was she playing along? Why wasn’t she just telling his lady to fuck off and walking out, going back home? Or to the police? Why would she even want to have anything to do with an elf, as if such a thing existed?
But for some reason Brenda could not explain, she felt the urge to see if the ridiculous story were true – she felt compelled to follow Sara, to take the red pill, to go down the rabbit hole.
And so she did.