by Doug Burbey
"Very well." She turned, stairs he hadn't noticed appeared on her right, and she drifted up them. She didn't climb and he kept checking to make sure there were stairs and not a ramp. As the reached the second level he realized the entirety of the building was an arboretum, and the second floor surrounded it with rooms that opened up to look down on the beautiful area below. On the other side, he could see another set of stairs disappearing. She walked past three doors then stopped at the fourth. By what he could see, each of the three sides had about five doors.
How many people live here? How big is this place?
"This will be your room while you remain here." She waved her hand and the name ‘Shane’ appeared in flowing script on the front of the door. "Please verify it will suit your need."
"Yes, ma'am." At this point, he would be very very polite to everyone he met. That casual use of magic with no effort, hell he hadn't even felt it, freaked him out.
With a deep breath, he pushed open the door and blinked. He didn't know what he had expected, Victorian opulence or a barracks. Either/or but not this. Windows let light stream in, while a nice queen bed sat on a low platform. A simple closet with racks and cloth baskets took up a corner. The colors were wood and the feeling was very oriental in simplicity, yet it had a beauty and order to it that called to him. He set his duffel down next to the bed and looked in the only other door in the room. A simple bathroom with a shower, sink, and a strange thing he assumed was a type of toilet. That he'd look at later.
Stepping out he noticed no TV, no phone… heck no outlets. Shane shrugged. He had a solar charger for his phone, though for now he didn't need to contact anyone.
"This is fine. Thank you." He said as he turned back to the woman still standing there. She looked like she could have stood there for years, but all she did was tilt her head slightly and turn and head back the way they came.
Unsure of what else to do, Shane followed her back into the entryway and then through the French doors to the arboretum. The lush area held planets he didn't recognize, though that didn't mean much, but they didn't smell like Earth plants. Sharper, spicier with a richness he only smelled in shops that sold bath stuff. She led him into the middle where a wide area of fine sand sat with patterns traced via thin metal ripples. Rich sat on a pillow on the far end, legs crossed and his eyes opened as they approached. Power surrounded him and Shane had to narrow his eyes in concentration to ignore the demand of obeisance.
"I see you have arrived." He did not seem pleased.
"Yes. I am here to learn." Shane felt oddly like he should bow but instead he dropped into parade rest, a pose he could hold for hours.
"Very well. Your teacher will be Lelwelia here. You will have meals here. You will not harm or interfere with any of my staff here. You will do as she says in all ways. When she says you have learned all you can, you will take up your half of the geas. Are there any questions."
"If I disagree that I can learn more?" His voice a bit cautious.
Rich smiled, it didn't make Shane feel any better. Fae had more teeth than humans and this smile contained predatory aspects.
"You will both agree. Lelw is an excellent teacher. She taught me." He pronounced it lew-ell, and with his accent it had an odd pleasing quality.
Shane shot a look at the Fae standing next to him, but he didn't get the waves of power off of her like he did from Rich.
So is she unbelievably powerful, or just a sop to my ego?
"I have no other questions at this time. If I have a question or a request to whom should I speak?"
"Lelw has agreed to be responsible for you." Rich quirked one side of his mouth. "Don't annoy her. She has a nasty sense of justice."
And didn't that just sound ominous?
"Very well." Shane tried to keep his tone respectful but he felt off balance and that made him cranky. The veiled threats didn't help either.
5
A Journey
"Good. Maybe you'll be of some use to me." Rich smiled as he flowed to his feet. He didn't stand up with effort or energy like it would have taken Shane, he just flowed upwards with exquisite control of his muscles. It looked impressive and intimidating. "Lewl?" Rich said he started to turn and walk towards one of the paths Shane hadn't seen yet.
"Yes?" Her voice still calm and completely unruffled.
"Do not break him if it isn't needed. He might be useful."
Shane narrowed his eyes as he watched the two Fae. It would be stupid to underestimate or trust them.
"I had not planned on it, but I will take that into consideration."
"As always, your service is above reproach." Rich had an odd tone in his voice and he inclined his head in a minor bow, then strode off.
Lewl turned and Shane found himself caught by her gaze again.
"What color are your eyes?" The words startled him, he'd never intended to say that out loud.
Dammit, what the hell is wrong with you. You know better than to blurt out stupid questions around superior officers. You want KP duty for the rest of your existence?
Her mouth opened and a low tinkle of bells echoed around him. Shane turned, looking for the bells but they had no source. They simply were everywhere or – his mind.
"You're laughing in my head, aren't you." He didn't ask, it came out as a statement.
Lewl closed her mouth, the bells stopped, and she had that hint of a smile again at the corners of her lips.
"What do you know?" She asked fully facing him her hands, fingers laced together, in front of her body.
"How to use my own magic, how to amplify it with demon blood, open portals at crossings of three or more, fire – well, molecular manipulation really. I tend more towards the destructive spells."
Her nose wrinkled and she walked around him. Shane stood, recognizing the old technique that officers used to try and make you uncomfortable, but he also wondered if maybe she saw more, something he hadn't considered.
"You are quite corrupted from the demon blood. Their magic, their blood tends to corrupt. It will make it difficult to learn Fae magic."
"Corrupted? What do you mean?" The idea rippled through him with a disturbing level of rightness. The seduction of anger, the pull for blood, other things that he had pushed down, refused to pay attention to, all fell under a heading now of corruption.
"Your magic channels have changed to become more likely to seek the corrupting paths rather than paths of growth like our magic, or order like the Others. Already your testes no longer produce viable gametes and your pleasure center has darkened."
As she spoke, Lewl completed her circuit and stood in front of him. Her face still that blank calmness as he struggled to interpret what she just said.
"So my kink preference rating has gone up?" He asked half smirking. The smile faded as the second part clicked in place. Anatomy outside of a woman had never been a driving interest.
Wait, testes?
"Are you telling me I am sterile?"
Lewl shrugged. "You still produce gametes, but they are no longer viable. It depends on your definition of sterile, but the odds of you having viable healthy children with your genome is zero. Are you ready to learn the magic of growth?"
Shane blinked, his mind trying to keep up with the subject changes.
I can't have kids. Do I care?
He waited for grief, anger, shock, something. Instead, there was the slightest bit of relief and nothing else.
"Yes, I'm ready to learn."
She turned and waved at the pillows, each encircled by a silver ring. He watched her sit and she flowed downward in the same lithe movement as Rich. With an internal sigh, he sat, knowing he looked awkward and uncoordinated in comparison. The pillow proved as uncomfortable as he expected. Why did flexible people thinking sitting on the ground would ever be comfortable?
"Do you see the ring in metal surrounding you?" He nodded watching her. "Do you know how to close a circle?" Shane nodded again. That had been learned quickly. Until you had excelle
nt control over your powers a circle meant it wouldn't spring away from you like a broken rubber band and take out someone. He'd seen that happen twice. Circles were important, he still used them for anything above lighting a candle, maybe someday he wouldn't need one.
"Raise and close it please."
He almost sighed in relief. Having his own circle of power around him meant he wouldn't be at her mercy. It would have been possible for her to raise a circle around him and walk away. He'd never have been able to break it. It took a second, he closed his eyes, felt the circle and raised the magic, his magic sealing himself in a cylinder around him.
"Interesting."
Shane opened his eyes to see Lewl staring at him a slight crease between her brows on that smooth hairless scalp.
"What?"
"You do not see magic?"
"You can see magic? Can I learn that?"
Her head tilted slightly looking at him and the ring. "I do not believe so, but I must ask. Why a cylinder? Why not a sphere?"
Shane blinked at her. "If I did a sphere I'd have to go through the soil and it would limit the amount of air."
"Would it? Interesting idea." She waved her hand and a small plant in a pot floated over to settle in the sand between them. The plant had two leaves and a tightly budded flower between the leaves on a stalk that reminded him of bamboo. The shaft seemed thicker and stronger than a basic house plant, but he couldn’t be sure. He didn't think it originated on Earth, but he could easily be wrong. "Do you see the plant?"
"Sure. It's in front of us."
"No. See it with your magic. Everything has magic, even the soil of the earth. Reach out and find the magic. Living things are easier to find the magic in, people the easiest, but if you are going to destroy something by accident I would prefer a plant to a person."
He glanced up at her thinking she'd made a joke, but her face remained perfectly serious, no hint of a smile this time.
I don't get any of this, and of course you'd lock out the air.
He huffed internally, struggled with his own arrogance, a flaw he knew he had and focused on the plant.
"What should I see?"
"I can not tell you that. I can simply relay what I see. The energy of the plant surrounds it, taking in life and pouring it out, even as it pulls what it needs from the soil. While there is science behind all of that, there is also magic driving the change, the growth, the exchange of nutrient."
Shane let his basic knowledge of how plants worked guide him and he studied the plant using the same senses he'd use when pulling on demon blood or launching a fire ball, or trying to rip a portal from its crossing. The sense of power untapped, unformed, waiting to be guided.
There, in the thinnest layer, he finally found it, coating it like saran wrap, almost invisible. It felt cleaner, wild, somehow more alive than demon magic did. Part of him wondered what his magic had felt like prior to the demon corruption, but it probably didn't matter.
"I found it."
"Then watch as I manipulate it."
He didn't open his eyes. While he couldn't see the magic he could feel it and he needed to concentrate to keep that much in his awareness.
A different magic, one that felt more like a narrow beam of concentrated sunlight touched the magic of the plant. He felt a gentle tug on the plants magic, a coaxing, an encouragement. No force but more a whisper of seduction in that magic that had him leaning forward wanting to feel the sweetness of the seduction himself. The plant trembled, then it flowed out in a new point where before there had been nothing, something grew out of it.
"Do you see or feel that change? What I asked the plant to do?"
Ask? Why would she ask? Why not just do it?
"I felt the magic change and move into a form it had not occupied before."
"Open your eyes and observe the plant."
He did as instructed and blinked at a plant that now had three leaves in addition to the flower. "You caused it to grow another leaf?"
"I asked, and it agreed. Forcing things, is," her mouth wrinkled a bit, "bad manners and often has unintended side effects."
Shane narrowed his eyes at her. "What do you mean 'unintended side effects'?"
"Once you learn how to coax, I will show you that aspect of it." She gave him a look and he decided not to push it. "Cause the flower to bloom by coaxing the magic into the paths that are already there."
Really? Just do it? If I knew how to do it, I wouldn't need to be here.
It required effort to keep his jaw locked and instead he closed his eyes and tried to remember what it felt like when Lewl had created the leaf.
Well, what if she didn't? You didn't actually inspect the plant prior to her doing anything. You just glanced at it. What if the leaf was there, about to bud? Maybe that is what she means by coaxing. You are finding what already would be? Making it happen now? She called her magic the magic of growth. Maybe that is a literal statement.
With those thoughts he sank down deeper into a trance feeling the magic, comparing it to his. The ebbs and flows of it so much subtler but it was there. Not a pulse like his magic, but a gentle thrum, so soft and low it took him a while to find it. Then he found the magic that traced around where the flower would be. Seeing would be easier, this was like trying to figure out which wire carried electricity by feeling it vibrate under your fingers. But he found it, thrumming softly around where the blossom was, but so low the plant barely reacted.
Bloom.
Nothing happened in reaction to his mental words. He frowned and looked at the magic. This time he tried to get more of it to go to the flower and the thrum changed. Only by the smallest amount but it changed. He encouraged more and more power to go up that area and felt the plant respond.
"Enough."
Lewl's voice startled him and he wobbled a bit as he opened his eyes. He hadn't realized he'd sunk so deeply into a trance to do that. In between them the plant had flowered a yellow-orange blossom that already looked a bit wilted.
"Do I do it wrong?"
"Wrong? No. You will need to work on your control to know how much magic to coax and how fast. In this case you moved a bit too much magic into it, so it moved faster through its cycle than what you intended. Now can you see what you did and do it more cautiously next time?"
He thought back to the thrum and what it felt like and when he could have stopped.
"Yes, I believe so."
"Then finish maturing the blossom but stop when the seed is ready to plant."
Looking closer at the plant he realized it would form a seed. "Doesn't it need to be pollinated for the seed to be fertile?"
The hint of a smile tilted her lips. "Yes." She brushed her fingers over the stamen and pulled them back, a faint sheen or orange covering them. "It is done."
What the - nope, I don't want to know. Make a mature seed.
He closed his eyes and felt, this time the magic seemed different, he could sense the possibilities that lay in the flower where before he hadn't noticed. With an effort that required more energy this time than the last time, he encouraged. Watching it, he could see how to force, how to just change it, but the slow evolution into that seed of nothing but potential life had a layer of fascination to it. This time he stopped when he realized that any more magic and it would sprout.
Opening his eyes he saw Lewl watching him. He tried to see the color of her eyes again, but all he caught was a faint glow that obscured any color.
"You did not fail and stopped at an appropriate time. Tomorrow we will work on how you manipulate the energy of the earth. You can use growth, though it is not your preference."
"We're done already? Why so short?"
Lewl arched an eyebrow then looked up to the skylight. Shane followed her gaze and blinked when he saw a dark sky and the hint of stars in it.
"Oh, I take it took me a while?"
"You were not fast, but my worst student took a week to manage what you did today."
Shane didn't know if he
felt better or not. "Who was your worst student?"
"Caedrich," Lewl said as she rose. "Dinner will be in your room waiting for you as we missed the dining bell. Tomorrow Shane Gris."
He watched her walk out.
Yeah, sleep might be good. Now, how the hell do I get up with both legs fast asleep? And do I have the energy to release the circle that surrounds me?
6
Force vs Coax
Shane had never been a morning person but years in the military had taught him how to get up when required. When he opened his eyes wide awake in the plain bedroom he couldn't figure out what had woken him. His alarm had an hour left. He'd set it for seven am, but here he lay, ready to go at six. Shrugging, he slipped out of bed, brushed his teeth, and pulled on clothes, not jeans this time. Something a bit more fluid if he would spend so much time seated. Luckily, releasing the circle last night had given him back enough energy to rise and make it to his room. He’d collapsed on the bed and fallen asleep, staying awake barely long enough to strip and set an alarm.
Stepping out of his room he saw a small figure straighten and look at him. Bright black eyes peered out of a face with a nub of a nose above a slash of a mouth. Greenish brown hair that looked like an odd moss topped the small head.
"Follow me for breakfast." The voice smooth like silk, not anything he'd ever heard from a human throat.
His attention locked onto it as he puzzled out what he saw. Small, twisty brown ripples covered the visible skin. It wore loose trousers and a loose overshirt, much like what peasants would have worn in the days of castles and knights. But it barely reached his waist, yet he knew it was not a child.
What is it? Is it alive?
He reached out with his magic, fighting to keep his eyes open while he did it. Tripping down the stairs would not be a good way to start the day. Familiar magic. It had the same feel as the plant, but stronger and more powerful.
A plant?
It moved on two legs, but he couldn't hear it breathe or a heartbeat, which didn't mean anything. His hearing didn't qualify as awesome or anything.