by Daniel Ruth
Humans may complain about losing an arm and shoulder but it will grow back in time. If I make a mistake and it hits my head or heart there will be no second try.
"Alan says you need to get to a clearing. The transport can't land in the forest," Jeremy paused a moment. "Specifically, he says he'd have to burn down a patch of the forest to land. I didn't think this thing was armed."
"It's Kingston. Since when did legalities matter."
"True. Go north a mile. I see a clearing there," Jeremy said. His tiny image was reaching over to manipulate something. Likely the transport terminal.
I started jogging. I made sure I wasn't going under the hydra. It was a very petty creature. Doubtless, it would attempt to spit on me or something more disgusting.
Within a few minutes, I reached the clearing. The transport was already waiting for me. Before we lifted off, I made a point to mark the GPS location on the terminal memory. I was going to have to retrieve it eventually. I also made a mental note to sterilize the shard when I recovered it.
The trip that had taken so many days traveling by land was completed in a few hours. Doubtless, it could have been faster but I could see Alan was taking it slow.
Upon leaving the forest we picked up an honor guard. The military had sent an escort of several flying chariots and two officers on gryphons. This slowed us further. The gryphons couldn’t even reach a hundred mph. Even a floater could outrace them let alone an intercontinental transport.
Jeremy and I made good use of the time. I finished teaching him how to create a telekinetic field and went on to demonstrate how to create a mental shield. This would be vital in avoiding becoming a sock puppet for his sister. She is so precocious.
I decided to add a telekinetic barrier as well, pretty much identical to the one I use to bubble things. It's very flexible and can be used to trap, block and cause people to run into invisible walls.
Chapter 11
Alan was the perfect gentleman. I could tell this was the reason he was chosen as Kingston's representative. Despite being forced to travel at a slow crawl he took the honor guard in good humor.
To be honest, I was more impatient than he was. Still, I was able to show Jeremy his speed reading and perfect memory psionic talents. I even gave him telekinesis. Mentally juggling balls is fun and an excellent strengthening exercise. It should help him over the initial psionic strength growth spurt, although I doubted it would be as extreme as Beth's. Being taught young was a significant advantage.
As for myself, I took the time to learn Dispel, Illusion, and Silence. These were the last spells from the fifth semester of the Academy. All of the fifth semester's spells were intended to teach combat skills while minimizing the physical damage a student could do.
Even the Fireball and Lightning spells were limited by the young mage's experiences and skills. Most of them could barely create a char mark. Mostly because they were taught wrong. The other spells didn't have any real flaws but those two were weakened versions. I could feel it. The instinctive grasp I had on magic and rules behind it whispered to me that there was a better way.
I had mixed feeling. Obviously, it was going to waste my time to research a better, more efficient methodology for those spells. On the other hand, I loved research. Admittedly my plate was rather full. My ward and circle research had ground to almost a halt. The only progress I made lately was when I had examined the wards inscribed around the city.
Alchemy was a new promising field if I could scrape together the time. I am sure I would be able to find some time in between chasing Stella, tracking Vatapi and deciphering the maps to Diego's home. It was making me want to hibernate again just thinking about it all.
We finally landed in Gildorn. Looking at the cameras it seemed to be outside City Hall. I walked out with Jeremy trailing behind me. Armored knights stood in two rows leading from our hatch. Durmont stood outside standing with an authoritative air.
I looked at him. He looked at me, then glanced in confusion at the Jeremy behind me. "Professor... I wasn't expecting you. Is that Sir Burrows?"
I saw him bring up the wrist terminal he had appropriated from me and an image of Alan appeared. He glanced from the image to Jeremy and back.
"This is my friend Jeremy. He is here to chaperone his sister. I think you want the other door." I gestured down the length of the transport where the door of the cockpit was opening and Alan was climbing down the newly extended ramp.
"Right. See you at the party," with an embarrassed nod he hurried over to Alan. He began a speech but even if I couldn't hear the details it was obvious his momentum was gone. I looked at the honor guard in front of me.
"So. Anyone know a good place to eat around here?" The rows of guards stayed stock still. They must have been trained in Britain. "Right, I'll go and show Jeremy around. Have fun... honoring the door."
I led Jeremy through the rows of people over to the City Hall Entrance. Now that I wasn't distracted, I noted that large swathes of the stonework were blackened. Even more looked like new stonework or magically repaired material. I had enough experience with the Repair spell to recognize its variations.
"City Hall was recently attacked by a dragon," I offered as I gestured to the damage.
"Was it the hydra or..." he waved his hands awkwardly. "You know who."
"Definitely you know who," I said as I showed him into the building. The building had changed a bit since I was last here and it wasn't all due to Maribel's rampage. Last time I was here the council was still under the domination of the demon lord.
Apparently, after I freed them, they had decided to invest in more protection. The floors were newly engraved with mighty circles that would flat out destroy lesser demons, bar mid rank demons from entry and maybe cause a demon lord to break out in hives. I mentally took notes on them. They were excellent examples of their kind and more advanced than I was presently capable of.
Jeremy was saying something but I wasn't able to focus on it with such a delightful puzzle before me. I hummed and nodded to him absently. I was about to bend down to get a better look at the circle and maybe taste the lines to see if I could identify the reagents when one of the numerous guards coughed authoritatively.
I jerked upright in confusion. Right, maybe I shouldn't do that right now. More than one guard was glaring at me in suspicion. For a moment I regretted not taking my mistaken honor guard with me. It passed quickly, I wouldn't have wanted to feed and water them.
Jeremy was smirking quietly to himself. It was obvious he thought he knew what was going on. He was likely right but I wasn't going to bring it up. Instead, I headed to the main council meeting room. It wasn't in session so there shouldn't be any guards there and I wanted to see what they had done to the place.
The double doors looked the same, however, I could see the floor before the entrance was new stonework. I frowned to myself. Maribel had really gone to town.
Walking to the doors I was immediately engulfed in one of the largest eruptions of magical forces I had experienced since Vatapi's circle had activated and the ten worlds had become chained together.
A familiar pain struck my chest and I staggered as I felt the very bones in my torso flex and creak as the 'Human' rune fought to keep me in my human shape and the magical influence I had blindly walked into did its damnedest to force me into my true shape. Energies warred within me and crackles sounded as small fissures formed in my bones. Blood leaked from my nose and mouth as blood vessels ruptured.
I stood frozen for an eternal moment as the raging energies found a new equilibrium. "Ow."
"What happened," Jeremy asked in a worried tone. I mopped the blood off my face with a sleeve. Too wrung out and stressed to worry about the blood.
"I... just found out," I slowly said in a hoarse voice. "Why Maribel went full dragon and started killing the Councilmen in the open rather than the subtler approach."
"Why was that," Jeremy asked.
"There's a massive ward... no, its old magic,"
I corrected myself. "There's a rune under this threshold. A rune of truth, powerful enough that it was likely crafted by a god. Any shifter that walked over it will be forced into their true shape."
"But not you," he asked. He was aware of my predicament to a certain degree.
"My rune almost broke. It was so close I could..." I trailed off wistfully. "Never mind. Things like this aren't created in modern times. This was made when gods walked the earth. They must have been worried Vatapi would come back. Instead, they caught a dragon."
"They did all this and they didn't have the means to subdue the creature they caught?"
"It appears..." I glanced at the walls and opening the double doors to look inside. The long table from before was still there but the floor and walls had new frescos that obviously covered something. "That they went all out with circles, wards and artifacts to kill, trap or drive away demons."
"And none of it works on dragons?" Jeremy asked skeptically.
"Everyone hates demons," I pointed out. "They are a blight on all the dimensions. Beings that draw nourishment and power by enslaving and destroying souls. Since they first cropped up everyone has been trying their darnedest to stamp them out."
"And failing."
"And failing," I confirmed. "But that doesn't mean there aren't some pretty good bits of magical warfare aimed at them. Dragons are tough. The oldest of them are probably as powerful as a demon lord, but we are anti-social bastards who generally hate being around other supernaturals and unless they are really extraordinarily evil, ignore the mortal races completely."
"Completely?" Jeremy asked skeptically as he pointed out the door to the repaired areas.
"We got mugged during a date, earlier she got nuked in her home," I shrugged helplessly. "We really aren't the forgiving kind. For her to give up on massacring France is really... magnanimous."
"I suppose when you put it that way," Jeremy was always a sucker for the lady in distress. "Anyway, you want to stare at the circles more or do you want to eat?"
I looked longingly at the circles and then at the frescos that were no doubt covering some gloriously complex wards. "Let's go eat. Then I'll go and introduce you to an interesting dimensional traveler I met. An undead hunter of some sort."
"Eat and then we go see Beth," Jeremy corrected. He was only this flexible because he had been talking to Beth for the last day over the terminal. She was probably pretty annoyed by now. "Then you can introduce me to your new friends."
Despite what Jeremy said about not being worried about Beth, he still dragged me to the nearest restaurant. It was close to the Council chambers so it was actually a rather high-class eatery. Another hundred of my tiny golden coins were gone. Still, the food was good, though I had to order five of everything to get full.
As we left, I saw Alan and Durmont still standing in front of the transport. The honor guard had somehow sidled over to surround them when we weren't looking. No doubt they somehow looked dignified while doing that but I couldn't imagine how.
I had changed my suit into a robe again, as well as reduced my apparent age to a teen. I doubt it helped as I was trying to wave a flying carriage down. It took me over ten minutes and the smirk that Jeremy was giving left me feeling unsatisfied. I was beginning to appreciate the convenience of ordering a taxi through a wrist terminal.
I finally got one to pay attention and stop. I told him to go to the entrance of the academy. The actual grounds were a no-fly zone unless you had permission. I had seen Durmont fly his coach there as well as his assistant, Baron Kerns. Knowing that he had abused his authority, more than just being a demon from an invading force, made me grateful for gutting the jerk when I had the chance.
Deposited at the entrance, I took Jeremy around the long way to the student apartments. He ooh'ed and ah'ed but I could tell his mind wasn't on the sights. When we got to the apartments, he actually hurried ahead of me. Then he slowed down when he realized he didn't know where to go.
We climbed the stairs and arrived on our floor with no incidents. This wasn't actually guaranteed since the first time we had arrived we had gotten assaulted by the senior students in some annoying hazing ritual. We had easily defeated them since they had little combat experience and were only able to access the most rudimentary combat spells. Actually, they had the same spells I presently had. Thinking about this made me feel a bit more dejected about my spell knowledge.
This time no one stared at us, even though Jeremy was obviously older than anyone else here. Beth had been a decent deterrent and I had noticed that the other students shied away from her. Seeing where we were going, they may have decided to treat us warily. I doubt it was me. Although I had soundly defeated the initial senior students, I had kept a low profile since then.
We entered the apartment. Beth was sitting on the couch reading one of the books from her classes. She looked up hesitantly and then awkwardly stood up. Jeremy didn't stand on ceremony and ran directly to her and swept her up in a hug. Then Beth was sniffling and crying. There were also occasional apologies for brainwashing him.
Naturally, I got bored watching this and examined the repairs. Beth had gotten a decent carpenter that also was able to fix the stonework and masonry. The gaps that the Repair spell couldn't fix, probably due to the pieces being vaporized by the impact, had been nicely filled in, matched and painted. I sighed in relief. This was a home away from home. Heck, I slept here a whole month straight. That's almost as long as I had slept in my city in Arc.
The tearful reunion was winding down so I slumped in my second favorite stuffed chair and with a wave of my hand activated the fireplace.
"When do you want to go to Baron Samedi's old place," I asked when there was a break in the conversation.
"Baron Samedi," Jeremy asked uncertainly. "He was the zombie master. Who was Baron Kerns. Who was Durmont's assistant? Who was actually a Rakshasa minion of Vatapi? Beth mentioned him."
"He had a house," I paused. "More of a mansion. It sounds like Durmont is making it the default dimensional travelers lodging. It's certainly big enough."
"I kind of thought I would stay here."
"You can," I acknowledged with a nod. With Stella leaving we certainly had room. "But I thought you might get a kick from meeting Zorro."
"Zorro?"
"A few days ago, a dimensional rip opened. Guess where it went?"
"Yesterday," Beth coughed. I ignored her.
"It must have been one of the ten worlds," Jeremy said thoughtfully. "If you are calling him Zorro it probably means he's from an Earth like ours."
I stopped smiling. The bastard had ruined my surprise. "Yes. It looks like somewhere around early 2000," I grumpily replied. "He dresses like Zorro but his name is actually Diego del la Vargo."
"Zorro!" Jeremy exclaimed gleefully.
"Yes. I said that," I replied, looking at him oddly.
"No, in the stories Diego del la Vega is Zorro's civilian name," Jeremy exclaimed with a smile.
"I knew that too," Beth chimed in. I glared at both of them.
"So, his hero name is actually his civilian identity," I asked.
"What do you mean," Jeremy prompted. "Do they have heroes like Faramond and Mei?"
Jeremy was doing his annoying detective thing. I don't know why I bother. Although I admit having him in a daze due to Beth's influence wasn't much fun either. "Yeah. I met a flying brick and someone dressed as a flag."
"Oh, you mean someone durable like a brick and a Captain America type," Beth interjected. I looked at her for a moment. Actually, I meant brick as in 'smart as a brick'. "Yeah, let's go with that."
"I wonder if Vatapi had anything to do with the rise of heroes. It seems coincidental that both worlds developed superpowers in basically different time periods."
"Well he had nothing to do with Faramon's and Mei was almost a holdover from the wizard whose identity he stole, Jin. He was totally obsessed with her though," I pondered. "He did empower Austin, Ryder and the other shifters. I had th
ought he just wanted powered minions. It could have been something more."
"Minions with superpowers seem to be a no brainer," Beth said. "Especially with people like Mei, Conrad, and Faramond around."
"Maybe," I shrugged. We simply didn't know enough to figure out the details of Vatapi's conquest plans. "Anyway, Diego got stuck here and although he isn't quite from your favorite era, he is close. I thought you might like to talk to him. I need to get as much information from him as possible since I'll be visiting his world soon."
"You will?" Jeremy asked. "You know the way?"
"No, but I shot an anchor shard through when the portal was open..."
"Wait, the same thing you used to cut Vatapi in half and catapulted you a day's walk from the portal?" He asked and then continued, "And also the same thing that you used on the hydra?"
"That would be the one."
"Aren't you getting a little free with the weapons of mass destruction?"
"It's wasn't really voluntary," I replied uncomfortably. "There was an imbalance in the dimensional energies when I got knocked through the portal. As for the hydra, you know I can't fight adult dragons head on. Plan A was way better than Plan B."
"I am not sure I want to know what plan B was," Jeremy muttered to himself. I nodded, he really didn't. Plan C would have been even worse.
"So while I'll keep looking for how the portals are connected I now have a way to get there immediately," I said offhandedly. "It's just that I am not in a huge hurry so I thought I would try to decipher the maps Baron Samedi left. I memorized them but it's still better to look at the originals."
"Like in Lord of the Rings," Beth interjected. "Where only the original map would show the secret words during a special day of the year?"
Jeremy and I both looked at her. "Sure. Let's go with that."
The 'maps' were actually magical projections laid over the walls in the Principal's office. I memorized them but I was pretty sure there was a deeper layer of knowledge available than merely the visible. Perhaps Beth was right, in a way.