Children of a Foreign God

by Pam Uphoff

  “That’s the Warrior Ra’d!” Gior squeaked.

  “They can’t turn it off.” Ra’d looked like he was enjoying whatever was happening.

  “Huh. There were valves on the schematics. I wonder if the crazy Rippers left them off?” Xen looked at the eight of them. “Come and watch, this might be educational.”

  He strode out the door.

  Arno snickered, “Educational or funnier than all get out?” They all piled through the door and ran to catch up to the two men.

  On the far side of the three main embassy buildings, there were a bunch of metal buildings, garages, and stuff.

  And an overflowing pool of water, that, judging from the roiling surface, and the fast eroding sides, must be receiving water at high pressure.

  Master Xen shook his head and disappeared . . . Arno spotted him well to the west. Waving his hands at the ground. He teleported. I wonder how that works?

  The pond surface smoothed, and after sloshing back and forth a bit settled down.

  Master Xen walked back, raising his voice. “If you can all move away from the west side, I’ll drain the water.”

  Some of the spectators looked stubborn, but most of them shifted. A wave of his hand and a a physical shield formed, long, edges curved up . . . then something went sideways in the gravity field, looped complete around, and water started falling upward in a spout and landing in the shield-chute.

  With considerable splashing and hasty retreats of the remaining spectators. Some with cursing and dirty looks back at the indifferent Fallen Wizard. Who strolled away to look down into the pit as the water level dropped.

  “Didn’t they put in a valve?”

  A man well coated in mud stomped up. “Yes, but we couldn’t connect to it, One sake! It was rock! So we cut it out so we could cement an iron adapter to the pipe . . . dammit, there was no water in the pipe, but as soon as we finished the cut, it came shooting out!” He stopped and glared at Master Xen.

  Who shrugged. “Figures. The valves we installed reverse the one way spells on the pipe when they’re in the ‘off’ position, so the water pressure doesn’t get too high. Once the valve was out of contact with the pipe, the one way spell returned to normal operation.”

  Master Xen looked down at the mud as the last of the water poured away. “Right. Let me put the valve back on, and then meld some of your pipe to it. Then, if you wish, you can put in your own valve, or just connect to your system.”

  Arno look to his left suddenly. A tall man, a stranger, had moved in close.

  “So, you’re the boy who can make corridors?”

  “Well, I made one. And I’m just the first, not, eventually, the only one of us.”

  The tall man nodded. Fished in his pocket and pulled out a small square of stiff paper. “If you are interested in employment possibilities outside the Empire, give me a call, and we’ll talk.”

  Arno took the paper and blinked at it. “Earth 1960?”

  “As identifiers go, it’s unexciting but unique. That number will reach me, or someone else in my agency if I’m not available. Keep it, you may be interested years from now.” He nodded politely and stepped away.

  Well, it beats kidnapping girls.

  He looked back in the pit. Something that was probably that rock valve was back on the pipe, and the mud coated man was handing Master Xen a length of pipe. The pipe floated down to the valve . . . and there was power being applied in a way Arno’d never seen. The pipe stayed there, as the walls of the pit collapsed a bit and built up under the pipe to support it.

  “Would you like me to bring in sand or dirt to fill the hole?” Master Xen wasn’t smiling or anything, but several people glared at him.

  The muddy man shook his head. “No, we’ve got this now. Why the hell it sounded like a good idea to cut off the valve . . . Ah well. I think we can handle the rest.”

  A tall dark distinguished fellow—is that the Ambassador?—strolled up to them. “Thank you, Xen. And perhaps next week when we start the sewer connections, we’ll ask you to step around and . . . meld our pipes to your stone one.”

  “An excellent idea, sir.” Master Xen gave the man a polite nod, and stepped away. Looked around and located them. “Do you guys have any questions about what I just did?”

  Arno looked back. No chute, no water defying gravity. “Was that like levitation, or a gravity effect?”

  “Gravity. I could as easily have stuck a one-way pipe in to drain it, but I tend to show off a bit around Oners. They mind their manners when I do things they can’t.”

  Ryol frowned. “I could almost see what you were doing with that metal pipe.”

  “Ah. I’ll grab some metal samples and show you how that works. All of you head for the beach, I’ll join you in a moment.”

  He rejoined them with metal bars, stone blocks, and boards. And his sister.

  “These are the most common materials we build with. Now, on Comet Fall, witches have a strong affinity to rock and metal, and Mages find woodworking easy. You eight have all three power genes, so I suspect the gender specialties won’t hold here.” He flicked a grin at his sister. “Judging by the two of us.”

  Q nodded. “However, because you’ve so recently blossomed, and this isn’t done on your world, We’ll just demonstrate and talk today.”

  Then she started mixing up the metals in the bars like it was putty.

  ***

  And at dinner, two young men who felt like Oners . . . Ryol squinted at them. “Definitely Oners, but I don’t recognize you.” Of course, they’re pretty ordinary looking.

  “We’re from the other One World. I’m Wkde and this is Utly.”

  “Recruiting, gentlemen?” Master Xen had walked up behind them.

  They eyed him warily.

  Master Xen grinned. “And why not? Everyone else is. Ladies? May we join you?”

  Ryol swapped looks with the others and they all scooted their chairs so Master Xen could pull another table up.

  “I understand that you’d like to make your own permanent gates.” Xen eyed the two men. Then caught the eye of the hovering Vero. “I’ll take the steak rare and a glass of merlot.”

  The men took the hint and ordered as well.

  “And since you’re approaching the girls openly, in public, I’ll assume you’re here to hire gate makers, not kidnap them as one other polity tried.”

  “No. No, we’re offering jobs.”

  Ryol thought that was the Wkde one talking, and the Utly one chimed in as well.

  “Huge salaries, free housing, expedited citizenship if they want it.”

  “Nice.” Xen steepled his hands. “Now the problem is that the girls are fourteen and . . . Gior are you fifteen?”

  “Next week.”

  “So, way too young to be making these sorts of decisions. And most likely won’t be opening gates for at least another decade. What you need to do is open an Embassy on Comet Fall West, and try to recruit some of the older gate makers. Or hire one of the dimensional construction companies.”

  Utly sighed. “We worked with a witch named Raven on the rescue missions. She was totally impervious to our charms.” He eyed Ryol. “Is she a relative of yours? The hair . . .”

  Xen nodded. “She’s a cousin of mine, so all my kids are related to her. Ryol got her red hair from her mother.” He nodded toward the table where Rael was eating with Q.

  They both blinked and stared across the room.

  Wkde nodded. “I don’t suppose you’d like to come seduce a score or so of our young ladies, would you?”

  “No. I have more than enough entanglements already.” He bit his lip. “However, I suspect that if you had that score of young women working at your embassy here, they’d find plenty of opportunities to seduce other dimensionally able men. All they’d have to do is sort out the dimensionals from the ordinary magicians.” Xen leaned to let Vero set down a plate, and the two guys dug into theirs.

  Ryol slowed down her eating, not wanting to miss the e
nd of this conversation.

  “In fact,” Xen nodded toward the waitresses. “Your women on staff ought to chat up the local witches. They generally have a good idea about what guys have the dimensional talent.”

  Wkde shook his head. “Do you have any idea what your reputation is like?”

  “Already? No, don’t tell me. The first One World sent you a whole bunch of vids, right?” Xen started grinning. “They did explain how extremely fictionalized it all is, right?”

  “Well, yeah, but the accumulated news reports confirm the basic occurrences. I mean, infiltrating all the way inside Presidential security? Near fatal injuries saving their President’s life? Building this Embassy World and making it work? And that Helios World? Yikes!”

  Ryol snickered. “And I know from family, that it all really happened.”

  Lala grinned. “And he’s even better looking than any of the actors they have playing the role.”

  Ryol eyed the Drip. Glowing, happy. She obviously loves her new father. But my dad’s alive and well, and I don’t need another.

  Master Xen shook his head. “Basically, the genes are going to slowly disseminate across the Multiverse. I’ve no objection to people hustling it along, but doing so in a criminal manner, especially involving kidnapping and rape is going to cause a demonstration of how I’ve got this reputation.”

  His voice and expression were perfectly calm and matter-of-fact. His glow had gone pinpoint intense cold blue. Ryol shrank down in her chair and held her breath.

  The two guys were leaning away, and looking a bit panicky.

  Master Xen cleared his throat. “Sorry. Hot button.” His aura stopped altogether.

  “Yes . . . well, we’ll pass your advice on to everyone else . . . sir.” Wkde looked at his half steak. Like he was going to grab it and run.

  Ryol frowned. “Are you guys hungry? I mean, out of food?”

  Utly sighed. “We’ve got these freeze dried things . . . and limited funds. The ambassador gave us dirty looks when we requested enough for a dinner out.”

  Xen snorted. “Not well prepared? I noticed tents. Perhaps I should go talk to the Ambassador again. I suspect your Council has held up the spending bill. Again.”

  Wkde nodded, relaxing again. “Yep. The ambassador’s got a trailer, the rest of us have tents.”

  “Do you hunt? Fish?” Master Xen eyed them, then turned toward the boys’ table, where they’d probably been listening in. “Perhaps we should show them the Maze, how to chop down trees and cut up firewood, bag a deer . . .” He looked back at the Nuked Oners. “Tomorrow, after exercises.”

  They were looking a bit stunned. “Umm . . . sure.”

  “And if we find the smugglers, you guys can try charming the women.”

  “You don’t shoot smugglers on sight?” Utly looked boggled.

  “Certainly not! They trade in tools and medicine, and don’t run weapons.” Master Xen grinned. “Drives the Oners up the wall trying to stop them. What’s not to like?”

  Both men looked affronted. And then puzzled.

  Wkde was frowning. “Surely the One has good health care.”

  “Oh yes, but some of the natives live a long way from it. The smuggled potions have made a big difference in the hinterlands.”

  They sort of stared at him.

  “Welcome to the Multiverse. Relax and absorb the weird ambiance. See you tomorrow.” Xen stood up and walked away.

  Ryol looked back at the Nuked Oners. “Yeah, he is a bit unbelievable at first. After you’re around him for a while, you realize he’s extremely unbelievable.”

  Gior nodded, and Lala grinned. Voyr who’d been eyeing the duo silently shrugged. “It’s been an educational fall for all of us. But if you want gates, well, like Master Xen said. In a decade or so. Ugh.”

  Wkde rubbed his forehead. “And I thought Ra’d was the scariest person in the Multiverse. So . . . do you young ladies know any older dimensionally able witches we can turn our charm loose on?”

  They all grinned. Voyr, who’d been eyeing them suspiciously the whole time, shook her head. “We’re Oners. See you tomorrow.” She got up and Ryol and the others followed her. “Users. As bad as those Discordians.”

  “No they’re not! They were perfectly nice, and came and talked to us!” Ryol protested.

  “Yeah. But they still had that ‘hunting’ aura about them.” Lala grinned. “Hey, do you guys want to see my room? C’mon.”

  Ryol started to turn for the school, but Lala was going the other way. “I’m only staying there to be with everyone. There are so many kids here without their parents—only half of them Xen’s or Q’s kids or nieces or whatever . . . “ She led them over that bridge, the one where Aunt Rael had stood for two months, and up to the house just to the left of the far end.

  “This is Dad’s house. He’s worried that I’ll think he’s a perv, so he’s so careful to make sure I feel safe, so I’m up here . . .” She opened the front door to a perfectly nice little house. A living room with a couch and a fireplace and a big vid screen.

  Lala turned and led them between a small little dinette table and a kitchen . . . and walked right into the wall. Ryol gulped and followed her into kid paradise.

  “You guys have your own theater? And a computer room . . . wow! Top-line gaming machines, all networked . . .” Gior boggled.

  Ryol stared the other direction, out at the view . . . “Is that the city down there?”

  “Yep, we’re about twenty kilometers inland and a lot higher. He’s also got corridors to a place in the mountains, another up to the hotsprings, and a big mansion, kind of like a castle up the coast that he’s still working on.” Lala bounced over to one of the closed doors and threw it open.

  “My room’s in between Styx’s and Kassy’s and I decorated it myself.” She opened a door to a room of charcoal grey walls, and bright red shelves. And a comforter in brilliant reds and golds of a fantastic dragon.

  “Wow!” Ryol ran her hands over the dragon. Velvet and satin, all pieced together. “That’s amazing!”

  “Almost the first thing we did was go shopping.” Lala grinned. “On four different worlds. We started with one called Earth 1960 that had this incredible quilt shop.”

  “I’ll say.” Gior sighed. “That’s brilliant. Not my style, but it’s . . . awesome.”

  Then laughter from the main room signaled Kassy’s and Styx’s arrival.

  Styx waved. “Hi guys! We just saw that new movie. It’s hysterical. Have you . . . No? Well I won’t spoil it for you. Isn’t Lala’s dragon gorgeous? Come and see my quilt.”

  They trooped back and forth comparing rooms and favorite colors, and then Styx and Kassy got snacks from the kitchen.

  “I just didn’t feel like a whole huge dinner, you know?” Styx plunked her goodies onto a low table and dropped into a big over-stuffed chair. “I hate history. I’ll bet I flunked that test today.”

  Kassy snorted. “You always say that, but you always get three-point-something. I’m the opposite,” she told the Oners, “I think I’ve done really well, and only get a three-point-something.”

  Ryol nodded. “Yeah. My stinky brother always gets straight fours . . . do they use the same grading system here?”

  “Yep. The school for Disco dependents was started by Haer Clostuone, and she keeps us up to standards.” Kassy assembled cheese and meat on a cracker and popped it into her mouth.

  “And she monitors the on-grid college students too. I mean, there’s only, like, fifteen of us, plus the six in college. I mean, seven little kids and eight of us in high school . . . It’s going to be weird when they build the school system.” Styx wrinkled her nose. “I mean, going to high school with all the Oners, Purps and Arbolians—everyone with power.”

  Ryol frowned. “What about people without power? Is there going to be another high school?”

  “Yep. And a dozen elementaries.” Lala got up, “Anyone else want a drink? Dad said they’d put off building middle schools until t
hey had enough kids they couldn’t split them between elementary and high.”

  Then all the boys came in, boisterous and loud, heading for the gaming computers. “It’s Oners vs Fallen.” Her brother called as he walked by.

  The girls swapped glances. “So much for peace and quiet. C’mon, let’s try the balcony.”

  Ryol looked back . . . “Or we could make it Girls versus Boys . . .”

  Yrno laughed, “Right! Like Guuurls could beat us.”

  “Uh, Yrno? Ryol’s very good . . .” Arno was ignored, and it was Game. On!

  Master Xen rousted them out just after midnight, having allowed them time for the girls to win the tiebreaker before he shut them all down. He escorted them to the school . . . and Ryol pretended to not notice the warm spots of lurkers scattered about.

  “How many people are after us?” She could hear the frustrated anger in her voice.

  “Five polities are showing a strong interest. I think this needs to be the last school for the year. Or perhaps I can come to One World to work with all of you.” He glanced to the side . . . sudden rustling and quiet cursing, that faded away. “I had not anticipated this degree of interest in you guys.”

  ***

  Rock molding lessons.

  And slicing. All the big cubes of rock Master Xen had set down in front of the school were variously manipulated into a broad walkway from the road to the school’s steps.

  Arno spotted Gior a little apart from the rest of them. Talking to a trio of men . . . who were maneuvering in between her and the school.

  That unnoticeable spell . . .

  He circled around the men and closer to Gior. Popped the spell. The men all startled, Gior looked around relief changing to surprise.

  Arno grinned. “Thought it would be Master Xen?” He looked at the looming trio. “And you should be glad it’s not him . . . huh. You guys feel like Purps. But you’ve got power. Some Purps are dimensionals, too, you know.”

  They glared at him.

  “So there’s no reason for you to be pervs and try to carry off women to be your sex slaves.” Arno crossed his arms and frowned back.