Erik broke away slowly, relishing the feel of the kiss. With a start he jerked away.

"The necklace!"

Bounding across the field, he looked where the necklace had fallen. When he spotted it, he was taken aback, for, wearing the necklace, was a figure wearing not a cloak but a long, midnight black robe. The light-green necklace glowed brilliantly in the afternoon sunshine.

Before Erik could react, the man in the robe strode across and embraced him in a strong hug.

"Thank you, my boy. You have returned my necklace I have searched for so long." With that the man broke away and looked Erik over. "My, my, were you wearing a cloak? My boy, those went out of style centuries ago! Come, change out of those silly clothes and into a robe." With that, the man swept a hand through the air towards all of them, as the rest of the group had joined Erik, and grinned broadly.

The group’s clothes were swept away in a wind-shredded mist, and replaced by long, thick, open robes of their elemental color, normal fighting attire, minus the weapons, underneath.

"Who are you?" Erik asked, greatly preferring the robes to the cloaks.

"My boy, you have to be new. I, my dear boy, am Julius."

<><><>

"Julius, how did you first come upon the necklace?"

Julius looked up at Rachel. They had become friendly rather quickly, and Erik no longer feared this Julius—although he still regarded him with some suspicion. At the moment that Rachel had posed the question, they were sitting around a campfire, roasting, to Matt’s only grudging allowance, several Pidgey.

Julius eyed Rachel for a moment before answering. "It was my medallion, much like Erik’s, when I forged Gassiter."

Erik looked up from poking a Pidgey in astonishment. "You forged Gassiter? I thought it was much older than that…"

Julius laughed. "My dear boy, you are mistaken. Gassiter is a great deal older than I hope I look. If you think not, then either I look very old, or very young. No, my boy, I forged your staff many hundreds of years ago. If you weren’t so new, you would have already paid me many respects, as the robe of this color of mine is one of the highest stature, second only to that of Nactenris.

"Before you ask, Nactenris is a being, by no means a god, that has great powers. He is more a psychic, I would suppose, but he does not belong to one element, nor two. He is not a Pokémon, but he has all the elements, and at the same time none. I’m sorry if that’s confusing, but it’s a simple as can be understood by us humans.

"Nactenris is my friend, I may go so far as to say that, and it is he who gave Gassiter its great power. Of all the elements, discovered, and locked away, that he has control over, he favors Grass. I believe that it is because of the mountain forests where he grew up, but no one, save himself, really knows.

"Nactenris is mortal, but only if he takes form. He was a human, a long time ago…but he was given a choice, of rule of the world, ultimate strength, or wisdom and knowledge, what has been called the three, past, present, and future. Nactenris chose the wisdom. He’s much like that Dallban character in…who was it? Oh yes, that very gifted Lloyd Alexander author. That man’s got quite an insight, I’ll say that for him…quite a way of expressing himself, too.

"Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Nactenris chose the wisdom and knowledge. Well, he got the wish, and I suppose he was happy for a time, being able to go back and forth between nowhere and having a body… but I think he got too much wisdom and knowledge than he bargained for, and, deep inside that heavy heart of his, all he wants is to be a boy again, free, innocent, and ignorant of the hateful world, to live only in his mountain home again once more…"

After a moment of silence, Erik plucked out a few finished Pidgey and passed them out.

"What happens to us? I mean, why are we masters?"

Julius laughed. "My boy, we are the shadows that move the world along. We are the unseen forces that drive the flow of time. It is us, my boy, who take on the responsibility of challenges, to fight those Masters that have turned evil, and to help these pitiful creatures called humans to not destroy themselves. We are the guardians of mankind."

"Are you serious?" Matt asked.

"No." Julius answered with a smile. "Actually, there are twenty masters. Only twenty. Well, only twenty true masters. You are six. The others do not concern you, so do not bother you. There are two other groups of six, if you must know, myself, and Nactentris. Each of you have been given a Scroll of Masters. You will each find a different list of tasks that you must complete. Whether you complete them together, or alone, is up to you. When you finish your tasks…well, just finish them.

"Good luck. They’re in your robe pockets." Julius gestured.

They all reached inside their robes and pulled out the sudden weight of heavy, rolled parchment. Erik’s eyes bulged as he stood and unrolled a list of tasks written in tiny handwriting that fell to the ground. He looked around, and saw that the others had about the same.

"How are we supposed to—" Josh didn’t finish his question.

Julius was gone.