by Daniel Ruth
"Yes. My intelligence reports Durmont is the new Council head. An introduction and character references."
"Good character references," I cautiously confirmed.
"Of course," he seethed.
"Fine, I'll lie for you until you make your deals," I clarified. He glared at me again. "Afterwards, I will not mention your past criminal endeavors, however, I will not keep lying for you."
"That would be acceptable," Kingston spat.
"I may know something that may be worth another favor," I mused.
"I am not giving up my 'wishes' on unimportant crap," the kingpin snapped out.
I looked at him in annoyance. Being referred to as a genie was irritating. "I wouldn't bring it up but since you seem interested in worldly power and wealth... at least in the new world... I may have an opportunity for you."
"And you think it would be worth a 'wish'?"
Anything to get him to stop saying it. "Maybe. The city of Gildorn has an association called the Dark Guild..."
"I have heard of them."
I froze. The news about the UN outreach was understandable. Knowing Durmont's name and position was reasonable. Knowing about the Dark Guild was not reasonable from what I knew about his resources. Mulling this over for a moment I came to a conclusion.
"Sulayman."
"No comment," was his quick reply. I saw a flash of surprise in his eyes.
Sulayman had hinted fairly strongly and then later flat out admitted that he was from Durmont's world. He had fled here under his own power before the restrictions went up. Apparently, he had seen Vatapi's grab for power and enough of his plans to be terrified. Unfortunately for him he had fled that world and ended up in one that was actually the main target of Vatapi's invasion. It seemed like more than coincidence but I never analyzed it too much.
"Anyway, the Dark Guild has been destroyed."
"What? How is that possible?"
"They annoyed that really cute dragon by the Paris gate and she hunted them down and killed them."
"The dragon chose now to do something that drastic?"
"Today actually. Anyway, I coincidentally happen to have gotten access to everything a high-level member knows. Since they pretty much don't exist anymore all their assets and contacts are just lying around abandoned," I gave him a fake sigh of sadness. "It is such a waste."
"Alright. Yes, I want it. I will accept that as one of your favors."
"Excellent!" One more step closer to getting this idiot off my back!
"You did this," he said thoughtfully. "You're more than I thought, Professor."
"I'm more than just a pretty face." Even if it was my pretty face that was responsible for events this time. "I'll prepare a package with the relevant data." One more thing to do before I slept that night. Yay.
"Since you have the transport, I assume you'll provide passage to the Paris gate?"
"Yes, tomorrow morning."
"Make it noon. I plan to sleep in my own bed as long as I possibly can."
Naturally, I didn't immediately go to sleep. I lounged a bit. Then I sat in my chair and lounged while I ate a sandwich in one hand and floated a book in front me for some light reading. Nothing too serious, just some myths and legends from Asia.
They had the dragons that looked the most like my breed. They just had some weird ideas of how magic worked and alchemy. It was no odder than the western magic myths but just as inaccurate. It was fun to relax and try to decipher truth from myth. Then the doorbell rang.
Sighing, I got up and trudged to the door. As I passed the living room I uneasily looked over, half expecting to see guests for movie night. Odd. Shrugging the unease away I headed to the door. I already knew it wasn't vampires. They would have had to use the literal bell in the front lawn or be vaporized by my protective wards.
Opening the door, I looked blankly at the man on the porch. It wasn't anyone I knew. The uniform looked familiar though.
"Please sign for the package," he said briskly. That was a variation of the AEGIS formalwear. It must be from Conrad. I reached over and put my hand the tablet. The screen immediately fritzed. I took it away. "That didn't register. Please do it again."
Suppressing my aura as much as I could, I tapped it again. This time it took my thumbprint. Boy, I am glad I could choose default forms. If I had to consciously control my biometrics every time I changed shape it would be a bookkeeping nightmare. Frankly, I was surprised this thing could even recognize anything from me. Usually, I show up as fuzz.
I looked over at the screen. It didn't even show a recognizable print. The entries had random characters. Blinking random characters. While the delivery man shook his tablet and tried to reboot it, I opened my package.
As I looked inside, I saw a wrist terminal. I smiled until I saw the model CRX9021. "Is this a new model?"
The man looked up from watching his screen reboot and looked over. "Oh, nice. That’s the new one the military came out with. Slightly more resistant to... er, environmental effects. " He paused and looked back at his tablet. "I think this one is broken. I'll have to log it out back in the office. Night."
I was already closing the door and booting up my new terminal. The interface was the same. I paired it with the home system and all the setting were imported over. After the second time I had to do that, I had Beth set that up.
I didn't want to destroy my terminal by overexposure to my aura. Therefore, I immediately went down to my lab to engrave the magic negation ward on the back.
I was puttering around the terminal settings as I absently descended the stairs. When I got the bottom, I looked up and froze.
My lab was still there; however, it was now just a small corner of the chamber. The walls stretched off into the distance. Offhand it looked like my lab had turned into a football stadium. The ceiling was also incredibly high. I must have been pretty distracted not to noticed the stairs were a hundred feet longer.
I looked around blankly. I had asked Beth to renovate the basement but then some life-changing events happened and we moved on to other worlds.
"My little lab's all grown up," I muttered to myself. Grown into what, I wasn't sure. Maybe I could invite all the packs of the city and we could play football.
I slowly wandered around thinking. I had asked Beth to get Stella's elemental to modify the basement. Since it had happened the only time it could have been done was after I had fallen asleep. Of course, Stella and the elementals couldn't travel across the dimensions without my blood. So, it had happened after she had stabbed me and tried to drain me like a psychotic vampire hoe.
That narrowed down the timing a bit. It also cleared up something else. She had come here after she gotten her blood. Also, as much as the redecoration was a pleasant surprise, there was no way this was a priority for her. This must have been a stop along the way to her destination. She just did me a favor while she was passing by. I felt a little of the annoyance I had towards her dissipate.
Then I noticed the numerous footprints melted into the floor or crushed there by the weight of multi-ton humanoids. With new eyes, I glanced over the entire floor.
She had left over two hundred elementals here. That was the main reason she had enlarged the area. That odd territorial feeling I always had when a greater supernatural creature entered my home gripped me. I immediately had to throttle the desire to hunt the two hundred some entities of mass destruction and snuff them out.
Right. That annoyance was back.
I needed some soothing. Going back to my lab, the tiny area of the stadium that was all mine...except for the hundred-foot ceiling... I tentatively hauled up the massive plate in the floor where I kept my treasure. I sighed in relief. I would have really been angry if my gold and gems were missing. It’s a dragon thing.
Stretching out my hands I forced my inner form to the surface. It had been a while since I had the privacy to stretch out. Sluggishly scales formed, my body grew tall and stout. I commanded my robe to form more of a toga.
> Talons replaced fingers and my jaw distended to form an elongated snout. Opening my mouth, serrated teeth grew, however, they were merely few inches long. Oh, I forced out a tail too. I hadn't realized how much I missed that.
My changes slowed as I reached a hybrid lizard man form. Halfway to my dragon-form. Courtesy of two unexpected encounters with rune and circle magic focused on breaking illusions and revealing true forms. My own runic tooth was now an artifact to force truth and this was as far as I could go. I looked like a fifteen-foot-tall muscular lizard man with grayish green scales. I might be able to push it to sixteen. Maybe. But it would hurt a lot. Even now I felt a band of restriction around my chest, making it uncomfortable to breathe.
Still, out of the two runic bindings on me, the lock on my shapeshifting was the closest to breaking. The anchor I had bent and twisted. Reinterpreted and turned it upside down. However, it was only a tiny bit looser than it was. As much as I regretted that, I also realized that the anchor rune gave me the best, perhaps the only, means of instant dimensional travel in the ten worlds.
Stepping down into my 'pool' of treasure I sighed in relief. I would rest in this little nook for a while. Naturally, I closed my eyes and lightly dozed.
I wasn't really sure what my next step in unlocking my true form should be. I might be able to loosen the rune if I went to the courtroom. The rune they had on the floor to force truth on witnesses might have a tiny bit more effect before it became ineffective.
The circles Sulayman used had already done as much they could. Two exposures had maximized the benefit I could dredge out for that. I literally had my runic tooth on me at all times, so further benefits from that were tapped out. What else was there?
I didn't have an answer. I suppose I would have to explore a little more of the ten worlds and see what I stumbled upon. It was far too soon to give up. Down the line, I had a last-ditch plan. I had been getting familiar with engraving specific runes myself. Conceptually speaking it wasn't that far off from inscribing sigils of power onto people's skin.
I had temporarily stopped the hydra from teleporting by attaching an anchor rune on him. It was unstable and poorly made but it had worked long enough to escape. I could practice a bit and get acquainted with the Truth rune. Maybe I could engrave it on something. Of course, even that was a far cry from placing on my own body.
Even my old nemesis, the black dragon, Mr. Evil (this name was my own invention), had been practicing on me. And he was far better at those forbidden magics than I would be for centuries.
I drowsed happily for a few hours before my terminal rang. Glancing at it sleepily I frowned. I had forgotten about how irritating that was. I returned to my adult human form and answered it.
"Hello," I groused.
"Derek," Jeremy's voice and image came over the terminal. It was terrible image quality. I looked nervously at the device as I realized I hadn't hardened it against my aura yet. Still, it was the latest resistant military device available. I was amazed it worked this well.
"Jeremy," I smiled as I looked around him. He was sitting in a French café. This was normal since I think he was still in Paris or what was left of it. "How are you doing. I haven't seen you for a while."
"Yeah, funny how that worked out. Beth says you were researching in the library."
"Yes," I responded hesitantly. "I was researching very difficult things. The history of magic kept me busy for days... and days," I trailed off. That was such a stupid excuse. The library would have to be the size of the Coliseum to keep me occupied for that long.
"Hmm, fine," Jeremy squinted into the camera, then his image got fuzzy. "What's with the connection?"
"I haven't had a chance to fix up the new terminal," I said as I waved at my wrist. Then just to mess with him I jerked around the terminal and made his image flicker around.
"Stop that," Jeremy snapped in irritation. "Alright, I have one question."
"Shoot."
"If your back at your house," he began. "Who is staying with Beth?"
I looked at him in consternation. His sister was almost nine. Despite what those stupid books said, she was very mature. "She has a group of friends she's staying with. Not to mention that the academy is guarded by flying mage patrols." As much as the rest of the city at least.
"So, no one," Jeremy growled.
"I'm going back tomorrow," I explained. He still looked unhappy. "It should be far faster since someone has volunteered a military transport to the cause."
"You left her alone, Derek," he said as he waved his finger at me. The dreaded finger of doom. "On your way there, pick me up. I have left her unaccompanied long enough."
I looked at him in consternation. "Well, the hydra's gone so it's far safer..."
"Perfect!"
"And with the transport, it should only take a few hours. Less even, however..."
"What else?"
"Well, Beth has magic... or will after I spend a little bit of time with her. She also has a few psionic tricks."
"I know. Do you remember why I apparently gave her permission to go to a magic and hydra infested dimension?"
"Right," I distinctly wanted to avoid talking about how Beth crudely, but effectively, mind controlled him. "But keep in mind that at this moment she could survive being hit by a hydra. At least once. As long as her force field was up and... never mind. She could survive a hit. You wouldn't. You wouldn't even survive a near miss. You also would have no defense against your sister accidentally melting your brain!"
"And who's fault is that?"
Well, it was obviously his fault for not learning how to defend himself. Why was he bringing that up again?
"Fine. You can teach me that psionics stuff. The first thing you'll do is to show me how to keep Beth from brainwashing me."
"Oh, cool!" I smiled happily. Finally, I could stop worrying that he would get accidentally stepped on. It would also be nice if he could look after his sister instead of the other way around.
Of course, Jeremy used to drag his wounded body to my doorstep because he would constantly get injured while playing the white knight. He is a really lousy role model for a little girl.
"Make sure you are transmitting your location to my terminal. I'll pick you up tomorrow evening... wait what is that Paris time."
"I'll set it up. I think it's some god-awful hour."
Chapter 10
Paris happened to be nine hours ahead. I had finished lounging in my treasure. Then I warded my terminal from magic, had taken a shower in my special bathroom with superheated water and gone to bed. Finally, in my own bed.
It was the end of a pretty good night all in all. Therefore, it came as no surprise that I woke up in the morning all bright eyed and bushy haired and took another piping hot shower. Supposedly Matt and Mei were staying here but I didn't see them at all. That was a little disappointing.
Still, I ordered out for breakfast. Because I could. It was still a bit odd to see it arrive in a ground vehicle. I felt like I had traveled back in time fifty years. Maybe more since the styles in favor for the vehicle shells were models popular in the 1980s. It's amusing that even during the world's recovery manufacturing was trivial enough for vanity designs.
Beth saw I was online with another terminal and sent me a few messages. Having a satellite in each world was pretty handy for communication. I asked her to look into what it would take to launch our own satellite and how small it could be. I didn't need a full military model. Just something I could harden and could transmit my terminal data and link through the portals.
She didn't reply, so she was either in classes or looking into it. Then I ran out of things to do. Oh, I could have gone and done some research into circles. My visits to Mirabel's world had been inspiring. They did everything so much better. It was natural after all their 'technology' was all based on circles and wards.
However, once I got started there was no way I would want to stop and a few hours would only be enough to be frustrating. I would ne
ed days. No, weeks! So, I turned on the news. It was full of disasters, human-interest stories and soap operas about people I didn't care about. Yawning, I turned the living room terminal off. Watching any more of that would send me to sleep for another month.
Digging through my pouch I dug up my fifth-semester spellbook. There were four spells in this book. Ostensibly, it was the start of true combat casting. It contained Fireball, Lightning, Dispel, Illusion and Silence.
Smiling I kicked back in my comfy chair and studied Fireball. It was a bit different than the cantrips I already knew and very different from the tiny flame I had learned on my own. In general, it was eye opening. I was digesting the knowledge and deconstructing it when a knock came from the door.
"Coming," I called out. I opened the door and looked out. Standing there was a tall, thin distinguished man with greying hair. For a society that only chose to age, why were all the older people with Kingston? Naturally, I was including him as well.
"Hello," I nodded. I looked past him and saw that there was something that looked like an armored truck parked out on the street. Actually, it might be more accurate to describe it as an armored mobile home. It was a good fraction of my house's size.
"Hello Professor, my name is Alan Burrows. Mr. Prince sent me to pick you up." His voice was calm and mellow. I immediately knew why he was chosen as Kingston's representative in the new world.
"Let me close up," I turned back to the door and closed it. I was about to slide the beams in the wall in place but realized that if I did my friends would be locked out. Maybe I should put a security circle in place. Just the typical one where the unauthorized intruders would be engulfed in fire or experience infinite pain. I sadly discarded that plan as I thought about accidentally killing the neighbors knocking on the door. It was an intriguing idea though.