by Tao Wong
Because of the corruption and miasma and because of the chimera’s original magic nature, scrying and tracking spells were of little use. The delicate spell forms broke down in short order around the creature or places it lived, and would alert the monster of our presence. Add in the fact that doing so would allow it to taste the “flavor” of my magic, and checking up on it magically was contraindicated.
The other aspect of chimeras that made them difficult to deal with were the sheer variety. The common image of a lion, goat, and dragon-headed creature was not wrong, just incomplete. Chimeras were magical constructs formed from multiple creatures smooshed together. The results were as varied as the insane mages and “scientists” who put them together. There was a small but healthy industry of “branded” chimeras—formulations of creatures that were sold as pets and guard dogs. In this case, we were facing one of the latter, its control spells damaged beyond repair after an “incident.”
No. I didn’t know what the incident was. And I hadn’t asked.
Once Alexa was ready, wearing her armored coat and a scalemail skirt that ended just above her armored knees, we crept closer. The ex-Initiate had screwed on her spearhead and carried the weighted net in hand, gently pushing aside foliage with the tip of her spear.
As I ducked under a branch and grimaced as an unseen cobweb swept over my face, I spotted the hole the chimera had made its lair. A small mound of dirt fronted the hole that went under a fallen tree, the insides of the lair dark and uninviting. I held up my hand and pointed at Alexa, who nodded, both of us crouching a little to stay hidden. Seeing no movement, I frowned, debating our options.
If the chimera had left its lair, placing wards was a waste of time and could allow it to catch us. On the other hand, if it was in there, a series of wards were the safest way to capture it. On the third, non-existent hand, as I glanced at the darkened spots on the leaves around the lair, if the creature was out hunting, people were in danger.
I looked at Alexa, who lifted her net, gesturing toward the lair. I nodded, deciding to stick to our tentative plan. We split apart slightly, doing our best to sneak toward the lair. Unfortunately, I was paying too much attention to the lair itself and not enough to my footing. I stepped on a dry branch, sending a resounding crack through the still forest.
I froze. Alexa didn’t as she rushed forward, swirling the net to make it open slightly. As I tensed, waiting for the creature to jump out, Alexa skidded to a stop near the exit. She paused, peering into the darkness before turning toward me, already shaking her head. I sighed, relaxing, and saw her eyes widen in shock.
Instinct from long years of practice had me throwing myself forward even as I formed the spell for a Force Wall. But as the spell formula rose in my mind, it felt slippery, twisty, refusing to come together with the same fluidity I was used to.
The chimera hit my upper back, making my graceful roll turn into a sprawl that jarred my head and left me with the taste of dirt and leaves in my mouth. The chimera was heavier than I’d expected, the ursine-canine mixture adding muscle and bone mass to the monster. Thankfully, the spelled duster kept it from doing any real damage, even as I desperately rolled to the side.
Force Wall Cast
Synchronicity: 31%
I splayed my fingers in front of my face, the Force Wall catching the slavering chimera just before it tore into my face. For the first time, I caught sight of the monster clearly. Wide jaws. A pair of extra-long canines on both the upper and lower levels of its teeth. A short tongue dripping frothy saliva. Two angry, tiny eyes stared at me as it snapped at the Force Wall again. Somehow, between my turn and the chimera adjusting its body for balance, I had managed to squirm it half-off me, its long and low-slung black-furred body resting only half on top of me. Even so, I felt the enchantments on my jacket activate as it pushed against the weight.
As I squirmed to get away and held it off with the Force Wall, I felt the spell formula squirm and twist, refusing to hold still as the chimera’s essence ate away at my spell. A sharp pain and another hit my legs, like a hard stick slamming into them that left a stinging sensation behind. The attacks made the spell wobble as my concentration slipped. As I glanced down, I noted the trio of tails—each long and muscled, like a snake’s body—and the way they whipped at my feet. If not for the enchantments I’d sewn into my jeans, I would have severely bruised thighs and calves. Or worse.
Another lunging snap caught only by me shrinking the size of the Force Wall again. The attack rebounded the chimera’s face, smooshing its snout flat before it raised its head for another attack. Only to have a spear catch it in its upper body, thrown by my brawny friend. The spear took the creature just behind its foreleg, throwing it off me through sheer momentum and allowing me to roll away.
Alexa pounded over to me, already waving her net above her head as I came up to my knees. A languid toss of the net caught the back of the creature’s body and part of the haft of her spear. The chimera squirmed away, getting to its feet and shaking its body to dislodge the spear and net. Too bad for it, it was my turn.
“Bog ground,” I snapped and pointed down, my fingers flicking and twisting before splaying.
Multi-Linked Spell Bog Ground Cast
Synchronicity: 64%
The spell took effect, conjured elemental water filling the ground beneath the monster. At the same time, the viscosity of the ground decreased, sinking the chimera. It struggled, which made it sink faster. I didn’t try to hold the spell together, sending a surge of Mana into the container before releasing it to begin my next spell. Bog Ground was actually a multi-linked spell, one that linked Summon, Alter Temperature, Force Fingers, and Decrease Resistance together. Because of that, the complicated spell began to break down the moment I released it.
Next up, I formed an Ice Spear and threw it at the monster. The Bog Ground spell had dispersed, leaving the ground dry and hard and the chimera knee deep. The shard of ice slammed into the chimera’s chest as it struggled free, throwing it backward. Hopping over, machete in hand, Alexa threw a cut that lopped off an ear, making the chimera howl once again.
With it trapped, injured, and surrounded, the rest of the fight was never in doubt.
***
Cleanse was such a powerful and useful spell. As I cleaned away traces of the fight and the blood on us, Alexa looked at the remnants of the chimera. She wrinkled her nose as the body parts continued their accelerated decay, leaving behind a ghastly smell and patches of meat and innards.
“Do we need to bring anything back?” Alexa said, looking entirely unimpressed with the thought of poking her fingers into that mess.
“Nah. We should be good. If there’re concerns, they’ll scry the location.”
Nodding, Alexa finished cleaning her blade and waved me on. Together, we headed back for the car while I mentally spent our rewards. Getting sorted would be expensive.
Chapter 9
“Easy come, easy go,” I muttered, staring at the handful of change I had left.
Splayed around the living room were the purchases I’d made, the vast majority coming from El, while the remainder had been picked up at the local hardware store. After some consideration, we’d decided against reinforcing the wards in-house. The time cost involved in developing thicker and more powerful wards was too high.
Rather than do that, I had chosen to work on a portable safeguard. That was why our coffee table had been pushed aside and the beginning of our warding circle rolled out on the floor. For the base, I’d decided to go with leather—specifically troll leather. The material had been carefully cured and still kept a little of its regenerative properties, allowing it to keep its pristine condition.
Having finished contemplating my poverty once again, I turned back to the leather. I was using a beam compass to draw out the edges of the circle on a giant sheet of paper pinned to the leather itself. Once I’d drawn the various runes in pencil, making sure I had enough space for everything, I wo
uld then have to enchant the entire thing.
Unlike most of my other wards, the portable shelter would be a short-lived defense. It wasn’t meant to last forever. In fact, with the amount of power I intended to pump through the thing, I figured it’d burn out within five minutes even if no one attacked it. But those five minutes would allow the secondary enchantments to kick in.
Of course, before I could make the secondary enchantments, I needed to make sure the primary ones worked. Around me were the discarded pieces of paper from previous attempts. Each time, a minor mistake—or a better idea—spoiled my work. As I finished with the compass, I leaned back and sighed in relief. Step one, done.
“You know, this is the second day you’ve been at this,” Alexa said, shaking her head as she leaned against the wall. “And you wanted to build more weapons, right?”
“I do. But this is more important,” I said, pointing at the leather. “As you know, defensive enchantments are always stronger if they’re pre-laid. I can cook up a powerful spell without a thought, but a properly enchanted circle could eat any attack of mine and laugh. It’s why all-out attacks against a Mage’s Tower were so rare. Anyway, I’ll be done soon.”
“You haven’t even started inscribing the runes.”
“But I’ve worked out what I want. Did you get the rest of my stuff?”
“Yes. Crushed deathwatch beetles, the extracted poison of a naga, and the lymph glands of a Chupacabra,” Alexa said, wrinkling her nose.
“Great. I wrote the instructions somewhere…” I cast around, moving papers till I found the necessary document and waved it at the blonde. “Here. Follow instructions.”
“I—”
“Lily!” I waited for the jinn to acknowledge my call before going on. “Can you watch Alexa and warn her if she does something wrong?”
Lily made her way down the stairs, her face furrowed with concentration. I waited while she tested the restrictions on her ring and the wish before she grimaced. “Yeah. I think so.”
“See. Easy!” I cheerfully exclaimed to Alexa, who made a face at me.
I laughed, having passed on the most time consuming and smelly job. Of course, I could do it myself—and often did—but as Alexa had pointed out, we were short on time. Better to finish this now than to wait.
***
Staring at the slowly drying piece of enchanted leather, I eyed the magic circle critically in the waning light of evening. Not that the living room was dark—in fact, it was brighter than day with all the lights I had turned on. The various enchanted materials we’d mixed had been added to gold and silver dust before I had taken the time to carefully inscribe the entire thing. Rather than waste time painting it on, I’d used magic to keep the mixture melted and stirred while Force Fingers carefully guided the slow-flowing mixture in the correct paths. All the while, I infused the mixture with my Mana and enscribed the runes with the spell formula.
The process had drained me more than any other enchantment I’d ever done and had taken the better part of four painstaking hours. The final result, to my eye, was perfect. Unfortunately, to the jinn’s exacting nature, it was less so.
Enscribed Runic Portable Abode Cast
Spell Fidelity: 87.4%
Enchantment Durability: 34%
Max Duration: 6.7 minutes
Portable Abode
This portable abode is a travesty of magic and intent. Rather than building a permanent safe location, this abode focuses on thickening the defensive walls of the abode, ensuring that it can withstand a strike even by an Archmage. Or so the creator thinks. Currently, this is an incomplete enchantment with a loss of 5.8% efficiency due to unfinished connections in the center.
Creates a 5’ x 5’ x 8’ protected location when triggered.
“Harsh,” I said, eyeing Lily.
“But fair.” Lily shook her head. “I would have preferred something more traditional. But I understand your thinking.”
I nodded. The second enchantment, the one I’d yet to complete, was a teleportation enchantment. It was basically a Linked enchantment with a spatial component. The goal was simple—you stepped into the circle, triggered the abode, and the protective walls came up. In the meantime, the teleportation enchantment made the connection to your teleportation location before sending you over.
The reason why I’d built it to last five minutes—rather than just a simple teleportation circle—was because teleportation was an incredibly complex spell. In fact, it was so complex that I couldn’t actually do it. Not real teleportation.
So instead, I was going to cheat. The plan was to use Link, Anchor, and Summon spells to sidestep the concept of teleportation. Rather, I’d Summon us to the new location, with the individuals within the circle taking a short ride through another dimension. Much, much safer than an actual teleportation spell.
Still insanely dangerous, but much safer.
“Now that you’ve completed that perversion, what’s your next plan?” Lily said, looking at the trio of plastic tubes I had resting to one side.
“Oh. Those. One-off-use wands,” I said, grinning. “Except I’ve got this idea that rather than generate the air itself, if I use hollow plastic, I could just put a Gust spell within.”
Lily’s eyes narrowed in thought, but before she could hint at what I was doing wrong, a knock on our door drew us away. It was just the two of us, since Alexa was at her night job.
“Trouble?” I said, wandering over to the door while grabbing my staff. I’d leave it out of sight, behind the door, but I’d grown a little paranoid over the last few days.
“It normally doesn’t knock,” Lily pointed out.
“Huh. True.” I opened the door.
Outside, to my surprise, a bike messenger stood, his hand raised to knock again. “Mr. Henry Tsien?”
“Yes?”
“Document for you.” The messenger handed me a clipboard to sign before he relinquished the simple envelope.
“Thanks.”
I was closing the door before I realized the poor fellow expected a tip. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my wallet on me. Magical staff, sure. But wallet, no. Shaking my head, I closed the door fully and walked back to Lily, eyeing the purple envelope. For a small envelope, it had a certain heft and stiffness that spoke of high quality, thick paper. An invitation—old school too, with a seal on the back.
“Weird.” I waved the paper in front of Lily’s face.
When the jinn saw the seal on the back, she stiffened. The seal was dark red, a slight smear of color running and, as I raised the envelope further, gave off the slightest tingle of magic. Not enough for me to worry about a magical attack, though there was definitely magic in play here.
“Do you recognize it?”
Rather than answer directly, Lily nodded stiffly. When I realized I wasn’t going to receive any further information from the jinn, I walked over to the kitchen counter and carefully set aside the mail. I grabbed my bag, pulled out my modifiable warding tablets, and flicked them around until I had the enchanted runes ready. Once I’d placed the envelope within my bag, I released a surge of power into the warding tablet and sealed the envelope away.
Once that was done, I focused and cast Force Fingers, manipulating the envelope to open it. As I broke the seal, a flicker of power escaped, rotating around as the notification spell hit the edges of my barrier and then, unable to escape, self-destructed. My eyes narrowed before I pulled out the card within.
The invitation was on fine purple paper, the note within written in a cursive script reminiscent of medieval Bibles rather than the functional cursive we’d been taught. I cocked my head, deciphering the words before turning the card around to check for a post-script. Finding nothing on the back or in the envelope, I released the Force Fingers spell while leaving the envelope trapped.
“How interesting,” I muttered. “I didn’t realize Rihanna was a magic user.”
“Rhiannon! You ignorant, pop-cult
ure-loving nerd! Rhiannon. The fae goddess!” Lily gave up on being quiet, only to clamp her mouth shut when she saw my crinkled eyes and choking laughter. Once I’d managed to get a hold of myself, she continued. “It’s not a laughing matter. She’s the queen of the fae. You can’t turn down that invitation.”
I cocked my head as I sobered up and pointed at Lily. “How powerful, exactly, is she?”
“Individually?” Lily played with a strand of hair as she walked away, tapping a few buttons to continue mining with her ship before she answered, her voice soft. “We don’t count things that way. Didn’t. Once you hit a certain… point, it’s hard to really compare. Powerful enough, Henry. That should be enough for you.”
I grunted, tapping the envelope again. “And why is she inviting me? Us?”
Lily shrugged, not offering an answer. Or perhaps unable to.
In either case, I looked at the invitation and waved at it. “So I’m assuming that’s safe?”
When I got no answer from Lily, I sighed and pumped a little more Mana into the shield. Better to be safe than sorry then. I had the address memorized at least. Grabbing a pad, I scribbled a note for Alexa then got dressed. Considering the invitation requested an audience ASAP and Lily’s reaction, letting them wait was a bad idea.
***
There were many places I’d expect to find a portal to Faery. A standing stone circle on a mist-enshrouded hilltop. Perhaps, if you were a Tolkien fan, the elves might be watching the opera or theatre—you know, refined and snooty. I would even accept a park or a secure warehouse, one that allowed large movements of people without issue—especially if they lay in a confluence of ley lines.