by Tao Wong
“Doing something illicit?”
“Yes!”
“Well, we kind of are…”
“Not like that!” Alexa said, looking scandalized. “I would never. Especially with you!”
“I’m hurt,” I said, clutching my chest.
Alexa smacked the top of my head and I laughed. I stopped the moment she dropped a thick file folder on the bed.
“My family?” I said.
“Alive. Unharmed. And untouched. They don’t seem to know what’s going on, though they are worried about you.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for all that she had said. But… “Worried?”
“Yes. They’ve even lodged a missing person’s report.”
“Shit.” I breathed deeply and shook my head. Surely that wasn’t as bad as I thought. Getting rid of a missing person’s report should be simple. I was an adult. I could disappear for no good reason. After my house burned down… “Hundred hells’ worth of shit.”
“Just about.” Alexa said. “Good thing you changed your hairstyle. You don’t look at all like the photo they have of you on the missing person’s report. It’s, like, six years out of date. Also, I like the spikes.”
I ran a hand across my hair, feeling the spikey and now blond-tipped hair. It was a little eye-catching, but not much. Add a pair of glasses that I didn’t need and bulky shirts and it was an easy change of appearance. As for the photo… six years? Had I not stayed for a photo, not taken one with my family for that long? In an age of selfies and mobile phones, of Facebook and Instagram, how had they not had a better photograph?
“Henry?” Alexa said, drawing my attention as she opened the file. “Are you with me?”
“Yes. Go on,” I said.
“Okay. Here’s what I found…”
***
Debriefing took hours. Not just because there was so much information to get through, but because I had questions. So many questions. I did my best to keep them on track, but questions about how she’d gotten all this information, what she’d had to do to get it abounded. Something in the way Alexa spoke, the way she held herself, the lines under her eyes and the pain in them told me I might not like the answers. And so I didn’t ask, even if I wanted to.
“All right. So, to sum up. We need to get my family out in two days—Saturday—because that’s when all my family will be in one place. They’ll be watching more than ever, but you’re hoping I can pull at least some of their people off. Because otherwise, there’s too many,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “That sum up that portion?”
“Yes.”
“As for threats we’re facing, we’ve got…” I took a deep breath and exhaled threadily. “The Dark Council. A small faction of the fey. At least four different Knightly Orders. Two different mundane hunter organizations. A naiad bounty hunting group. And a group of Oni gangsters.”
“Those are the credible threats. There are more, but those are the ones you have to worry about. I want you to memorize their pictures and details.” Alexa tapped the pile of files she’d drawn from her bag as we’d been talking. I’d glimpsed the details, but she was right. Knowing what they looked like would help. “Now, what were you up to?”
I found myself grinning, pulling up the duffel bag and plopping it onto the bed. Then I pushed against the bundle of Mana that made up my Level stats and made it visible to Alexa. “Why don’t you check it out yourself?”
Class: Mage
Level 79 (11% Experience)
Known Spells: Elemental Control (4 Base, Force), Mana Control, Shaped Control, Forced Healing, Heal, Wards, Link, Track, Wards, Greater Glamour & Illusion, Lesser Summoning, Empower, Lesser Divination, Cleanse, Runic Script, Elemental Resistances.
“This is rather different.” Alexa frowned as she looked over my adjusted spell list. “You’re missing a lot.”
“We decided to clean things up,” I said. “Once I’d progressed my Elemental Control, I didn’t really need a slot for Iceball, Fireball, Airball, or Earthball and then another one for each type of dart, spear, cone, or whatever else I decided to come up with. Part of my training was learning to deconstruct spells so that I’m just shaping the elements to make it what I need.”
“Makes sense. Doesn’t tell me what you can do though.”
“Pretty much everything you’ve seen me do, except bigger. I can link two different elements together now, so I can generate a Firestorm or create a Freezing Fog without relying on the spell formula’s Lily put in my head. Magma’s a bit out of my wheelhouse and Lily refuses to teach me that one,” I said, pouting a little. “But my biggest improvement is in my actual skill set. Here…”
Another mental prod and a new piece of data appeared.
Magical Skill Set
Mana Flow: 7/10 *
Mana to Energy Conversion: 6/10
Spell Container: 8/10
Spatial Location: 6/10
Spatial Movement: 6/10
Energy Manipulation: 6/10
Biological Manipulation: 4/10
Matter Manipulation: 7/10
Summoning: 2/10
Duration: 7/10
Rituals: 2/10
Multi-Casting: 6/10
Enchanting: 8/10
“Your spell container and enchanting abilities are really up there, aren’t they?” Alexa said.
“Yup. Have to be. They feed into one another. Got to control the inscribed runes when I’m enchanting, so that’s been progressing along with the matter manipulation. Same with multi-casting, though I’ve hit a wall there,” I said. “When I’m enchanting, I can handle up to eight different flows. But once I start moving and fighting, I drop down to about four. Five at a push.”
“Five spells?” Alexa’s eyebrow rose in surprise.
“Five flows. Three to four spells, depending on how complicated the spells are and if I’m using a pre-generated one or not,” I clarified.
“Oh. Right.” Alexa fell silent, and I basked in her good regard, knowing that my month and half of struggle and pain had resulted in great improvements. When I stayed silent, Alexa frowned. “And the asterisk?”
“What asterisk?”
“That one!”
I frowned and looked closer, then blinked. “That wasn’t there… Lily!” Of course the jinn didn’t answer me. Couldn’t. I glared at my ring instead until a tap on my thigh made me look at Alexa. “It’s… nothing. Just a little reminder.”
“About?”
“I had to raise my Levels. So I kind of—”
“Damaged some of your Mana channels and your body?” Alexa finished for me, flicking her gaze to my scarred hands.
“If you knew, why’d you ask?” I crossed my arms, hiding my hands belatedly.
“I wanted to see if you’d tell me.”
“Gah! You’re as bad as my mum!” I said. Then paused, realizing what I’d said.
We both sobered, the reminder making me sigh.
“I’m looking forward to meeting her,” Alexa offered into the silence.
A thought struck me. I raised a finger, then lowered it slowly.
“What?” Alexa said.
“Nothing.”
“Henry…”
“Ugh. She just might want to know who you are. It’s not like we, you know, introduced you or Lily,” I said. “And well, she knows of you. And might, you know, think you’re my girlfriend. Or something.” The last was squeaked out.
“Or something?”
“Well… we have been staying together. In the same house. And my mum’s wanting me to… well, you know how old people are. Parents…” I coughed, flushing red.
Alexa blushed too when she caught on, smacking me on the thigh before turning aside. After a moment, when the blush had reduced, she turned back to me. “That… might be better.”
“What!?!”
“I need them to come with me. Without question,” Alexa pointed out. “Them thinking we’re… together might make it easier.
”
“Right. Right. And we can just tell them otherwise. Later,” I said, running a hand through crusty hair with a grimace. “That’ll be fine.”
“You don’t sound convincing.”
“That’s because it’s my parents,” I whined.
Alexa gave me a half-smile and I shook my head, pushing it aside. Not the time for that.
“So, wanna see my toys?” I pointed at the duffel while hefting my smaller backpack too.
“Yes!” Alexa said, almost bouncing in eagerness. There was a flash of avarice in her eyes, but more wonder. Even after all this time, the ex-Initiate still found some wonder in our lives. I wished I could mirror that right now, but…
“All right. So first, my vest.” I pulled out the simple buckled-on vest that I’d mashed together from a vest and a bunch of leather cords and pouches.
“Ugly.”
“I never said I was a seamstress. Or fashionista,” I retorted but had to admit, the brown and green leather straps and pouches clashed with the black base of the vest. In each of the pouches was an easily accessible wooden sphere a little smaller than a baseball. “Each pouch is linked to a pouch in the duffel. I’ve got more copies of each of these enchanted spheres in there. So all I need to do is pull one out.” I demonstrated by pulling the sphere. “Arm it and toss, and while I’m doing that…”
“It fills up!” Alexa’s jaw dropped. “That’s amazing. You’ve got an automatic replicator. But how far…?”
“About a mile. I’ve got multiple smaller bags with the same kind of enchantment in the duffel too, with smaller ranges. So I can basically drop the smaller bags around beforehand, giving me multiple caches to run to—but with shorter range—or I run around a central area, pulling from the duffel as necessary,” I said. “Gives me options.”
“What do the spheres do?”
“Basically, they’re magical grenades.” I pointed at each of the four pouches in turn. “Fire. Ice. Wind and earth—dust storm basically—and force sphere.”
“Force sphere?”
“This one takes a little more work, but I can either make it a defensive ward—though it holds me still—or a giant wrecking ball to throw at people. There’s a weird interaction between speed and size. Seems like it keeps the same momentum even when the force sphere activates, so if you throw it hard enough, it’s like a wrecking ball. I have a couple for you that are pre-charged.”
Alexa grinned. “That’s pretty good. How many do you have?”
“For myself? About a half dozen of each type. I’ve also got six wands,” I said, pulling out the bundle of sticks and pointing at the holsters. “Same thing, but they’re attached to this bag. They don’t fire more than a half-dozen overcharged attacks before they’re done, but they’ve all got their own charges, so it won’t use my Mana.”
“You’re planning on a long fight.”
“Yup. Got a couple of enchanted masks too, pre-set glamours and illusions.” I drew a breath and let it out. “I can provide the distraction. But even if you get out…”
“You’re worried they’ll still be caught?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t worry,” Alexa said. “I worked something out.”
“What?”
Alexa didn’t answer me. My eyes narrowed, then I realized why she didn’t want to tell me. If I didn’t know, it couldn’t be plucked from my mind. They couldn’t be used to hurt me, make me give up the ring. Though if I was already captured, would they really care about any of my friends or family?
Ah hell. Better to be safe than sorry.
“I’ve got a few more things.” I opened the duffel and showed her the tools I’d made. An assortment of pre-set wards, enchanted blocking wards, a couple of balls of grease, a couple of invisibility potions, and even one short-term gliding potion. All tools to help me evade and hurt others when needed.
In the end, when the show-and-tell was done, we regarded one another over the pieces of my enchanted gear, a choking amount of tension appearing. Knowing what was coming. And yet unable to avoid it.
“Alexa…”
“Thank me after.”
“I—”
“After,” Alexa said with finality and stood. “Now, get reading. I’ll get us food.”
I watched as the former blonde, now bottled redhead, walked out, and I sighed. If I had another wish…
But that was the thing about magic. It might be magical, but it was no miracle. It couldn’t fix most things. It was a tool. A versatile tool, but just another tool.
Chapter 17
On the designated day, sneaking into the city took me an hour. It mostly consisted of paying the exorbitant fees to take a taxi from the motel to Faircreek in the southwest. There, the abandoned city docks and the crumbling warehouses made for an urban maze of derelict buildings and low population numbers. Of course, depressed business district or not, it wasn’t empty. Which was why I made sure to drop off and hide my duffel in an empty building before making my way to talk to an old friend.
“Wizard. Haven’t seen you in a bit.” Andy, the green-skinned ganger orc that ran these streets—or at least, a portion of them—greeted me with a toothy smile. “Surprised to see you here. You running another quest?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t know what you’ve heard—”
“Heard enough. Didn’t want to believe it, but you’re really in trouble, aren’t you?” Andy said, deep-set eyes crinkling. “You know I’d love to help you but—”
“No need.” I knew what he was going to say and also knew what he could offer. The enemies I’d made outclassed my friends by far. “But they are going to come for me. If you can get word out to get off the streets…”
“You going to fight here? In my neighborhood?” This time, there was no friendliness in Andy’s voice. He reared up, glaring at me. “What the hell, wizard? Why bring your shit to us?”
“It’s not on purpose. I just need—”
“Bullshit. You’re choosing our place. That’s very much on purpose!”
“I need a place with fewer people!” I snapped. “Or do you want me to do this in the middle of downtown?”
“Sounds great to me. Better than bringing more shit onto us.” Andy pointed at me. “I thought you cared, man. But you wizards are just like the rest. Once you need to, you’re just out to shit on us.”
“That’s not true!” I growled.
But a part of me, a nagging part, pointed out that he might have a point. I could have chosen another neighborhood. I hadn’t even really considered any place else, done any research. Had I chosen a place like this because it was easier? Or was it the best choice? Even if it was the best and reduced the amount of damage to the most number of people, did heaping trouble on those who had the least make it worse?
“Get the hell out of here, wizard. And don’t show your face again,” Andy said, shoving my shoulder.
I took the push and backed off, wanting to explain but realizing nothing I could say would ever justify what I intended to do.
As I backed away, Andy let off one last invective. “Every person hurt by this, it’s blood on your hands.”
Rather than reply, I retreated. Andy barked orders to his subordinates, people who glared at me. I hurried off, turning the corner before casting a glamour to hide my face. In short order, I was another person. I still had a lot of work to do, including scattering my other pouches around the suburb. There was no guarantee that Andy wasn’t being watched, not with him being one of my few friends, but thus far, Alexa hadn’t found them to be keeping an eye on him. That was why I’d risked meeting him.
As I headed away, I glanced sideways, calling forth the Quest Lily had created for me.
Quest Received: Survive for Four Hours
You have been challenged to reenter the city and make yourself available to your opponents. Failure to do so will see the death of your family. As bait, you will need to survive for four h
ours while Alexa brings your family to safety.
Reward: The safety of your family
Failure: Your death.
Bonus Objective 1: Each additional hour of survival ensures the increased level of safety for your family
Bonus Objective 2: Escape from your pursuers after achieving your first objective
Over the next hour and a half, I moved around the business district, breaking into abandoned warehouses and sneaking into backrooms, leaving my enchanted storage bags in those locations. Of course, just to mess things up, I also cast illusion spells on random pieces of equipment. Plastic bags, a garbage can full of rotten food, and a large pile of fecal matter were among the presents I left for my trackers.
Along the way, I dropped a number of my pre-made enchanted wards, each set to release a single burst of energy. I mostly tuned them so that they triggered when met by an aura with a high enough concentration, ensuring that your random supernatural would not likely trigger them. They were my early warning system. When they went off, I had to smile grimly from the rooftop where I’d been resting.
“Guess it’s time?” I said, closing my eyes. I tapped the ring. “Lily, you might as well pop out.”
“You sure?” Lily said as she appeared beside me, clad in her hoodie and slacks. She pivoted, taking in our surroundings then looking at the sky, taking in the salt-encrusted fresh air that blew in from the docks a few blocks away. She looked down, spotting the runic circle I’d drawn, and shook her head slightly. “You know they’ll pick me out.”
“Yeah. Can’t have you following me, but I thought I’d say bye one last time,” I said. “Can’t stay too long, but… thank you.”
“Good luck, Henry.”
I flashed Lily a grin before hurrying down the stairs, leaving Lily and the trap behind. For a time, her signal and the ring’s would seem the same. Which would lead my enemies right to her. Of course, once I hit the bottom of the stairs, I scattered a pouchful of pepper and cayenne peppers into the air, making sure to keep a Gust spell around my body to ensure that none of it touched me. Once I’d moved away from the pepper, I inverted the spell, keeping my scent locked to my body. It made moving a little harder, but was easier than trying to mimic an entirely new scent via an illusion spell. In the open air, I was forced to redirect the gust upward, shifting my scent into a column into the air and dispersing it high above so that it would be impossible to track me that way.