by Tao Wong
“You can’t seriously think I’ll agree to that,” I said.
“If you desire our help, you will.” Nicholas said, stopping Caleb when he tried to say something else. “You have little choice here.”
“Pretty sure no is still valid.”
Nicholas snorted, his gaze flicking to my ring then my face. “You could not even stand five spells. If I wanted to take that ring—”
“You’d fail.” I shook my head and turned, walking to the car. I paused when a thought struck, my eyes narrowing as I turned around. “You are going to drive me back, right?”
“Henry, you need to consider your position more carefully,” Caleb said, concern in his voice. “This might not be what you want. What I wanted. But the Council has made it clear that they want more from you.”
My fist clenched as I looked at the all-too-smug Nicholas and the prideful Mohammad before turning to the conflicted Patricia. They thought they had me in a corner. That I had no choice but to accede to their demands. And truth be told, they were right. Lily’s protection might stop over-Leveled assholes like these guys from attacking me, but it did nothing to stop them from sending waves of appropriately Leveled assholes. And unlike a game, I wouldn’t gain much experience from protecting myself from them, because my Levels were tied to my ability to both physically manage and understand the magic that was input in my body.
Angry or not, I was in a corner. They were right. But… “I already did. I’m not taking a soul oath. No way, no how.”
“Then they’ll kill you,” Caleb said.
“So be it,” I said. “No one’s immortal, eh?”
“Bold words. But know that if you walk away now, when we speak again, your deal will be even worse,” Nicholas almost snarled.
“Don’t worry. I won’t be.”
“Foolish child…”
I didn’t bother answering and walked out, deciding to stop being childish and arguing. I stalked forward until I reached the edge of the enchantment, which had yet to turn off. For a moment, I waited to see if they’d turn it off, and when they didn’t, I pushed my staff against the enchantment. My eyes narrowed as the enchantments on the staff flared to life, pulling at the shielding wall. Information about the enchantment flowed into my mind via the analyzing runes in the staff. My eyes narrowed as I searched for the gaps, then when the next pulse from the shield cycled through, I inserted an adjustment.
A moment later, the enchantment opened up, splitting aside for me to walk out. Behind me, I heard a few indrawn breaths, but I refused to look back. If they’d been willing to bargain, to help out, perhaps we could have come up with something. Instead, they’d decided to hold my feet over the fire and see how much I’d squirm. Well, bugger that.
Alexa looked up when I came over, her eyes narrowing when she took in my distressed demeanor. She spun her spear around, watching the riding stable. There was no need to say anything, not with how things had gone.
When five minutes came and went and Caleb didn’t come out, I groaned softly and fished out my phone.
“Looks like we’re taking a carshare back,” I said, glancing at Alexa’s spear. “They won’t attack us. Can’t.”
“Fine,” Alexa said, opening the sedan’s back door and fishing out her duffel. She looked at me and flashed a grin. “Shotgun.”
“Hey! You can’t do that until the car’s here,” I said, having finished booking our ride back.
“Nope. Called it.”
“That’s—aargh!” I threw up my hands and waved down the driveway. “Let’s go wait on the main road.”
Together, we walked out. I couldn’t say for sure what Alexa was thinking, but for myself, I was debating how on earth we were going to survive.
***
“To sum up—the government has pulled back a couple of blocks. The Druids and the other pagans have left. So will the Mage Council. The Templars and the rest of the Orders are going to leave now that the Council has made their position known. And none of the other quieter guardians, those who want the ring, are going to stick around, not without the big boys in play,” Lily said, ticking off on her fingers. We were back in the living room, after I’d explained what had happened with the Mage Council and my decision. “That sound about right?”
“Yeah. I doubt they’re going to leave entirely, just in case I manage to level…” I turned my attention to Lily. “Can we do that?”
“Do what?” Lily said, raising an eyebrow.
“Can we raise my level? Hit 100, like, in a week or something and release me from the spell?” Even as I finished speaking, I realized how bad an idea that was. Exactly what did I intend to do even if I did get a higher level? It wasn’t as if that higher level, artificially inflated or not, would do anything but release the wish.
“A bit. Not all the levels, but we could flood you with more experience,” Lily said. “I’m not sure why…”
Alexa pointed at me. “We should get you to train. Properly.”
“Properly?” I said, blinking.
Alexa nodded. “No more random silly quests, no more hunting for the best clothing or carving silly sticks. You train and level and increase how much Mana you can wield.”
“Training montage?” I said with a slight smirk, only to get smacked on the arm by Alexa.
“Idiot. This isn’t funny.” Alexa said, shaking her head. “But we should also talk about leaving.”
“Our lease isn’t up,” I objected immediately, thinking about my poor damage deposit. Our damage deposit. Huh. I wondered if the Templars would want their share back?
“We’re talking about getting killed, Henry. Focus,” Alexa snapped, and I sighed.
I pointed at the wards we had. “But the house is warded.”
“You know those won’t last forever. If they really wanted us dead, they could breach the wards,” Alexa said. “Staying here, we’re just a target. If they all leave…”
I nodded, looking at my hands. She’s correct that there really isn’t a better option than leaving. If we can run and hide—if being the operative word—we had a chance of lasting. Lasting long enough to… to what?
“Henry?” Lily said, cocking her head.
“How did your other owners manage to not get killed?” I said, frowning.
“Well, first, they generally hid my presence,” Lily said. “And then, well, most didn’t ask for magic. Money—when wished for properly—was easy enough to offer them. Power was harder, but it could be arranged. You have no idea how many political marriages I managed to arrange. But for the ones who wanted or needed magic, I was more of a research assistant, you know?
“Then, well, they became the most powerful Mage in their surroundings. And with the way news and rumors got distorted, no one was going to travel for weeks or months to check out a bad rumor. Or fight someone who could be more powerful than them just for the chance of getting an artifact that was better than the one they had already. Maybe.”
I sighed, rubbing my face. “So you’re saying air transportation and phone lines are killing me.”
“Sort of? It’s not as if a lot of my owners weren’t killed because they had me,” Lily said. “My last couple of owners before you never let anyone know of my presence. They hid my power and barely used me as more than a research assistant. So we’re in new territory here.”
“Yay,” I said desultorily. “I always wanted to break new ground.”
Alexa snorted, then poked me in the shoulder. “It doesn’t matter. We just have to get you strong enough that you can fight them off.”
“What? You mean the entire world?” I said.
“Or you could look for someone who’s strong enough to do it already,” Lily offered.
“Like?”
“Well… ummm… Mer’s stuck. Hecate… well. You aren’t the right sex. Abe’s sleeping somewhere. The Eight won’t talk to you. Umm….”
I didn’t know who Lily was speaking about, but what she wa
s saying was clear enough. None of the people Lily knew who could have protected us were going to. Which meant I would have to do it myself.
“Well, if we’re going to go, we should figure out how. And where.” Alexa flashed me a half-smile.
I sighed. “You have a plan, don’t you?”
Before Alexa could say anything, we were rudely interrupted. The screech of a tire-burning turn was the only notice we received before a truck barreled toward us. My eyes widened as I stared at the incoming vehicle, watched as it struck the windows and living room’s outer wall. Watched as my wards, never meant to handle a vehicle driving straight at us, flared to life and tried to keep the vehicle out.
And failed.
Chapter 13
The wards bled most of the momentum from the vehicle. Force Columns, generated initially as Force Spikes, reared from the floor, meant to block or injure those who came through the windows. It had been easier to enchant the entire wall with the same ward form rather than pick out just the walls. They hit the truck’s undercarriage as they grew, throwing it upward and tearing up the shaft and other mechanical bits.
Rather than come all the way in and smash us into pieces, the truck stalled, two-thirds of its body in our residence, the last third held off the ground by the spike columns. I stared at the shattered front window and saw no one there. Gasoline tanks on the truck tumbled and creaked, dented and broken in the initial charge, but not exploding. Perhaps it was the other defensive portions of the ward or perhaps it was the Force Spikes, but whatever had been meant to set the gasoline on fire didn’t go off. Yet I smelled the spilled gasoline, heard it dribbling to the ground as my ears recovered from the cacophony of sound that the truck had created when it slammed into our building.
“Shit. We’re under attack!” I snarled, turning to Alexa. Only to see that my friend was only partially responsive, coming to her senses as a gash down one side of her head spilled blood. “Oh gods. Alexa!”
I looked at Lily only to see her untouched by dust cloud or injury, but staring in shock. Not at the truck, but the shattered monitor on her laptop. Rather than waste time on her, I cast around for something, anything. And saw the rolled up enchanting circle, the portable habitat I’d been working on.
I snatched it from its place and threw it on the table before picking up Alexa with a heave and stepping into the circle. It hummed for a second as I shoved my Mana into the runes, powering them. As the walls of the habitat flickered to life, the gas tanks on the truck finally exploded. If not for the flash of magic I felt just before the tanks went off, I would have thought the explosion had something to do with the sparking electricity or the broken truck itself.
The world went red and orange, flames and pieces of the truck itself striking the Force Walls. But they held, having been reinforced for just such an occurrence. Well, this and more. Mana sucked out of my body, flooding down the runes, taking whatever I had recovered and a little more before the world flashed white again.
Just before we left, I caught a glimpse of Lily, untouched in the remnants of our home, looking forlorn and lost. Seated amidst flame and smoke as our home, our place of residence and relaxation, was destroyed.
And then we were gone.
***
Our forms blurred, transported through a parallel dimension, pulled apart and shifted before we were returned to harsh reality and the anchor point I had created, returned to the mark I’d set. I lurched forward, the motion that was not motion throwing off my sense of balance. I tumbled forward, holding onto Alexa, and only managed to twist enough to not drop her onto the ground.
As I pushed myself upward, Alexa weakly struggled out of my arms to fall onto her butt next to me. Pushing aside her hands, I shoved at the cut on her head, pushing it together while casting Heal. Thankfully, this spell was one I had grown so used to that I no longer needed to use a physical component to cast.
A few minutes later, Alexa pushed me aside and scrubbed at her face. She cleaned off the sticky blood that had congealed from the heat that had managed to touch us even through the barriers. While Alexa was busy cleaning herself off, I took stock of our surroundings. I touched a ward and sent my Mana into it, reinforcing the wards that had automatically gone up when we’d teleported in. Among other things, it was meant to hide our aura signatures and Lily’s signature too. It wouldn’t hold forever, but it would give me time to work on the next step.
Before I could get to that, Alexa spoke up. “Where are we?”
“Uh… well. Storage depot. About two miles from the house. I needed a place to test out teleportation wards, and I used to keep this for my, well, other business and forgot about it.” I gestured at the variety of suitcases, storage chests, and random pieces of furniture I’d collected and never managed to sell. Or in some cases, kept because I felt I’d make more later.
Admittedly, after I got my magic, I’d forgotten about my rainy day stash. I’d only remembered the storage shack because I had been considering a place for my teleportation experiments. And, I’d admit, I’d spent a little more time building the wards around here due to a quest that Lily have given me.
Which reminded me that I needed to make sure Lily’s signature and mine stayed hidden. That meant a moving enchantment ward. The easiest way to do that was to inscribe the enchanted ward on something easy to carry. Luckily, among the other things I kept here were small wooden blocks and scribing tools. In short order, I had a workplace set up.
“Alexa, can you find some string? I’m thinking necklaces,” I asked before turning to the blocks.
It took a few minutes for me to recall the wards I’d considered but never created. Once more, I considered why I hadn’t, why I had been willing to believe that my ‘allies’ would stick beside me. And cursed myself for the foolishness. Too late for regrets though. It was time to get to work, time to complete things I’d considered but not put into place.
Thirty minutes later, I had a pair of amulets. The first one suppressed and changed Alexa’s aura—that had taken me less than five minutes to create. The second warded amulet took the rest of the time, what with my stronger aura and Lily’s. I’d mentally planned a few ways of doing this. At first, I’d considered creating two wards—one for Lily’s ring and one for myself. However, the math on that didn’t work. Even the ambient aura from the ring meant that I would have to carry around a much larger, more powerful aura ward.
To fix the issue, I’d decided on something a little more creative. First, I subsumed the aura from the ring into mine. That made my aura much stronger while changing it. Once I had changed my aura, I needed to reduce its output. Of course, one of the aspects was that my aura was now so powerful, it was impossible to keep it suppressed on a daily basis. Instead, I altered it in stages by first compressing the ambient aura down to reduce the radius. I needed to do that multiple times until I stopped being a beacon. The result was that my compressed aura made me seem even more powerful than I was, but it required someone to be close to me to feel it.
At least, that was the theory. I gripped the amulet, slid it over my head, and drew a deep breath before activating the amulet. I felt a cold wind run across my body, making me shiver, then felt the wind brush over me again and again, each time compressing my aura further and further. I felt the way my ward worked for what seemed to be hours but was only long minutes before my aura stabilized.
“What did you do?” Alexa said when I refocused on her.
“I concentrated my aura and hid the ring underneath it,” I explained. “What does it feel like?”
Alexa regarded me with her head cocked before she answered. “Like I’m standing in the clear on a hot sunny day, feeling the sun beating down on me. Like a warm wind is blowing across my skin, but it’s not really a wind.”
“Huh. Almost poetic.”
Alexa sniffed, then looked around before she asked softly, “Lily?”
“She’s fine.” I laughed bitterly. “An explosion would do nothi
ng to her. She’s already back in the ring, but we can’t have her out.”
“Why?”
“Her aura, when she’s out. It’d tear through these wards,” I said, gesturing about. “I’m going to have to inlay some proper wards and craft some suppression material to keep her hidden.”
Alexa nodded then made a face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think they’d act so fast.”
“Not your fault. You warned me. Not to rely on them. Not to keep putting things off. I just… I didn’t want to believe they’d give up on me, on us, that easily.”
Alexa flashed a sad smile, and I couldn’t help but remember that she had been discarded. Perhaps I should have listened to her. Too late. Too damn late.
And now here we were, hunkered in a storage space, hoping the artifacts I’d created would work. Would be enough. But even now, I felt the strain placed on the wood around my neck, the way it had already begun to crumble. It wouldn’t give away immediately, but eventually. Eventually…
“Now what?” Alexa said.
I closed my eyes before opening them again. “Let’s grab what’s useful here. Then we should get moving. I’ll cast a dispersal spell, try to hide our exit. But we should get moving across water and fast. Out of this city preferably.”
Alexa nodded. “I’ve got a place. And some funds set aside. We’ll just need to make a quick stop.”
By this point, I was too tired to be surprised by her words. In the end, all I felt was gratitude that at least one of us had planned for this. Planned to be betrayed.
***
“A bowling alley?” I said, raising an eyebrow at Alexa.