by A. K. DuBoff
“Kaiden…”
“I know you’ve been reluctant to admit you have casting abilities, but you do, Elle. Maybe you should try tapping into that.”
“Maybe,” I realized. We’d glimpsed the enemy we were up against, and it would take every advantage we could get to defeat them. If I had new skills locked inside me, I owed it to my team to prepare myself for the upcoming fight.
“There’s good energy in this place. The magic comes freely. Just try it out and see if anything comes to you.”
I took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll give it a shot.”
Having magical abilities had always sounded fun to me, but as I prepared for my first intentional use of magic, I found myself more terrified than excited. It probably stemmed from having no idea where the magic came from or what it was. The idea of manipulating the world around me with unseen force went against the laws of nature that had been a cornerstone of my life.
Yet, I’d seen the bliss on Kaiden’s and Maris’ faces when they were casting. I wanted to taste that sweet power for myself.
I turned away from Kaiden to face the collection of boulders that were to serve as the object of my target practice. While Kaiden had initially been drawn to fire, I found myself called in a different direction. Competing forces of light and dark filled my mind—not the Darkness, but something else… Something even more powerful.
I extended my gloved hand toward the boulder, palm open. A white orb formed between my fingers, shining brightly even in the daylight. It swelled in my palm for two seconds and then released. The orb shot toward the boulder and struck it at my chest-level. At the impact site, a fist-sized chunk of stone broke away and hovered in the air, seemingly defying gravity.
My mouth fell open. “How…?”
Kaiden’s eyes widened. “Well, that’s a new kind of magic.”
I lowered my outstretched hand, and the rock dropped to the ground. “What…?”
“Hmm.” Kaiden crossed his arms. “I’m not sure what to make of that.”
“Is it the glove?”
“No, that’s just a channeling tool, like my staff. I maybe snuck down to the equipment room this morning after you left to go check out the details about the item,” he admitted.
“Hence the invite on this nature walk.”
“Yep.”
I let out a slow breath. “So, what, I can levitate things?”
“After smashing parts of them to bits, apparently.”
“I’m not so sure about this magic thing,” I replied with a frown. The kind of magic I’d fanaticized about was filled with colorful light and elemental-themed attacks, not… whatever I’d just done.
Kaiden tilted his head. “Elle, you tried one thing. I think it’s a little premature to draw conclusions.”
I shook my head.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’m scared to see what I can do. And if I’m scared of myself, what will others think?”
He softened. “Hey, you don’t have to worry about me going anywhere, at least. And besides, anyone who’d ditch you over you manifesting magical abilities wasn’t a very good friend to begin with.”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“You have to trust yourself, Elle. These abilities can catch you by surprise sometimes, I can attest to that, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere. You’re in control. Be clear in your intentions and the abilities will follow.”
“You make it sound easy.”
“It’s natural… it’s a part of you.”
I scoffed. “Right. This thing that only three known people in existence have is completely ‘natural’.”
Kaiden paused. “Okay, I could have phrased that better.”
“Uh huh.”
“How about…” He thought for a moment. “You now have access to something ancient, and unique, and special, shouldn’t you embrace that gift?”
I evaluated him. “All right, that’s a sentiment I can get behind.”
He smiled. “Besides, I know you secretly want to be a mage.”
Excitement welled within me as I heard the word. “Okay, yes!” I burst out. “I really do want to learn about this, even if it does scare me.”
“Good, harness that desire,” Kaiden said. He nodded his head toward the boulder. “Now, see what else you can do.”
I held my palm open toward the rock once more, concentrating on the place I’d struck on my previous attempt. This time, I tried to picture what I wanted to happen—for the entire boulder to lift from the ground. I figured it was way too big of a spell to take on, if it ever would be possible, but I may as well aim high.
Another white sphere formed in my palm. It swelled until it was the size of my head, then launched toward the boulder. The light dispersed on impact, enveloping the top half of the rock monolith in light. Cracks scored the stone, and fist-sized fragments levitated along with dust from the destruction. The boulder broke apart before me, the fragments at my command. If an enemy were in sight, there would be no escape from my assault.
“Stars!” A deep voice drew my attention to the edge of the path we’d taken from the shuttle.
My head snapped around. Rock fragments fell to the ground in a thunderous cascade, echoing through the alcove.
Toran stood between the crystals at the path’s edge, his heavy brow raised with surprise. “Elle, you can cast magic?”
20
My hands dropped to my sides. “Toran, we thought you were going to call us.”
“I did. Apparently, you didn’t hear me, and the comms don’t work down here.” The large man turned his attention to Kaiden. “Did you know about Elle?”
“What’s the big deal?” I interjected. “Kaiden and Maris are both casters.”
He held up his hands defensively. “I’m just surprised you didn’t say anything.”
“I wasn’t sure I actually could do anything,” I said, looking over the destroyed boulder. Its top third was missing. Given more time, I may have ripped apart the entire thing.
“This was an experiment,” Kaiden said.
I nodded. “Yeah, like I said, it’s not as though I’m the only one with magic casting.”
“Yes, but Maris and Kaiden don’t also have your physical skills,” Toran replied.
“That doesn’t mean they couldn’t. Is there actually a rule against having skills in multiple disciplines? Just because we picked one when we were extracted doesn’t mean we should be limited, does it?” I honestly had no idea. If our skills were based in some sort of ancient lore, I’d never read it as a kid. All I knew was that I felt multiple abilities within myself and I was done ignoring certain parts. Kaiden was right: I did always want to be a mage. I had been so close to selecting the Spirit discipline during my extraction, maybe part of that desire had manifested, along with some of Protection due to my defensive attitude.
Toran nodded. “You’re right, there’s no reason to think we can’t have multiple skills. That part doesn’t bother me. What I do find concerning is that you felt you needed to come out here and test those skills in secret.”
I didn’t know why I had been so intent on keeping it to myself. I appreciated that Kaiden had honored my wishes, but in this matter, perhaps he had been too accommodating. My mantra to my team had been that we needed to be open and trust each other, yet I had been trying to hide a huge revelation about myself.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, hanging my head. “It wasn’t fair or right for me to not say anything.”
“In all fairness, it was only yesterday during the battle in the Archive when those abilities came to light,” Kaiden said in my defense.
“Yet, somehow the equipment room scanner on the Evangiel knew to make this caster-specific device available to me,” I said, flexing the glove on my right hand.
“Maybe there’s some common marker it picked up in me and Maris, and then also saw in you,” Kaiden suggested.
“What
ever the reason, this is still all new to me.” I sighed.
“Please don’t hide things in the future, Elle,” Toran said. “You can trust us.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“Anyway, we’re keeping you from the important work, Toran,” Kaiden interjected. “What did you come find us to say?”
“Right.” He looked me over again. “I found something interesting through the crystal interface.”
“Show us,” Kaiden gestured for Toran to lead the way.
“I still want to hear more about this apparent telekinesis,” Toran said while we walked.
“I’m not sure what to say,” I said. “Caught me completely by surprise! I was kind of going for a lightning attack—I always like the way those looked.”
“This definitely wasn’t elemental-themed like my magic, but it seems incredibly powerful,” Kaiden said.
“Indeed. Especially for an initial attempt.” Toran paused. “I can’t help but wonder… if you can lift, can you also crush?”
“I have no idea.” It hadn’t occurred to me to try; I wasn’t sure I wanted to try.
“Once we get back to the Evangiel and have a better sense of the alien fleet, you should test out your new magic the way you encouraged us to do,” Kaiden told me.
I eyed him. “Yeah, well, if you thought fireballs were a bad idea on a spaceship, then a boulder-disintegrating gravity-defying light orb thing seems like an even worse idea.”
“Might need to come back to a planet like this,” he amended.
“You may get practice time before we leave,” Toran stated as we reached the open area near the shuttle. “I have more investigating to do. The unique properties of this crystal canyon have resulted in some interesting interactions with the crystal interface.”
“What do you mean?” I questioned.
Toran strode to a crystal with equipment hooked up to its base. He pointed toward the portable readout screen. “The signal seems to be augmented. I’m picking up something strange in the background that I can’t explain.”
I examined the data. I didn’t understand what the components indicated, but it was clear that there were strong waveforms at the forefront and something different at a low level in the background. “Have you ever seen anything like this before?”
Toran shook his head. “Looking at the signals emanating from reset crystals wasn’t exactly my job before this madness started. But with that said, I never came across anything anomalous before now, including the scans over the last week.”
“Does it have something to do with this place? The connection to the Master Archive?” I suggested.
“Or, could this be interference from the Darkness?” Kaiden asked.
“That’s the most likely explanation. It appears to propagate through the crystalline network,” Toran replied.
I frowned. “And let me guess… to properly analyze it, you’d need to go right to the source on an infected world?”
Toran nodded. “That would offer the greatest insights, yes.”
“No wonder we took the risk.” Kaiden sighed.
“There might be another way…” Toran began slowly. “I may be able to enhance the signal using the amplification from this place. I don’t think I would have even picked up the signal on another world even if I’d been looking for it.”
I frowned. “This is very bad.”
“It’s a lead. That’s good!” Kaiden said.
“That part, yes, but not what it means,” I said. “We suspected the Darkness infects worlds through the crystals, but if we can pick up a signal here, that means it might be throughout the entire crystalline network, not just the worlds where it’s already shown up.”
Kaiden paled. “Or, at a minimum, this world is next.”
“But the Archive isn’t actually here,” I reminded him.
“All the same, this is the only way we know to access it.”
Toran took a deep breath. “There are no signs of corruption on this world, so I do suspect the signal I’m picking up is from the broader network rather than something specific to this world. It’s faint.”
Kaiden’s shoulders rounded. “So, it’s everywhere? I’d always thought of it as hopping from one world to another.”
“Yeah, but…” I bit my lower lip. “What if it’s not an infection of the crystals like we thought, but rather of the hyperdimensional network itself?”
“In that case, it could appear on any world without notice,” Kaiden murmured.
“But we can find it,” Toran said. “I believe that further analysis of this signal might tell us where it’s coming from.”
“And once we find the source, we can go on the offensive,” I realized.
“Exactly.”
I threw up my hands. “Then why are we still talking? Analyze!”
“There’s a problem,” Toran said. “I don’t know how to decode the signal. I can isolate certain components, sure, but I can’t interpret what each segment of code does without having more information.”
“I thought you said you could trace the signal to its source?” I asked.
“Yes, if I can cross-reference it with some other readings on the Evangiel. But as for the big ‘how exactly does the Darkness work?’ question, I’m afraid this might be another dead end.”
My heart dropped. “I’ll settle for learning where it’s coming from so we can stop it.” Yet, I found myself more concerned than excited about Toran’s plan. The déjà vu that had been haunting me for the last day struck once again in its vague an unhelpful way that danger was up ahead. I almost said something about it, but we already knew full-well that there would be risks. These actions were likely what had led us down the path that culminated in our confrontation with the alien invaders. As scary as it was, we needed to move forward.
“Any new insights are more than we have now,” Kaiden agreed. “Can we do anything to help?”
“No, if you’re good with this plan, I’ll get back to it. You may as well resume your practice,” Toran replied.
I hesitated. “This work always seems to fall to you. I wish we could do more.”
“Never doubt your own contributions, Elle. We all pull our weight in different ways,” he assured me.
“You’re quite literally the heavyweight around here,” Kaiden said with a smile. “We’d be lost without you.”
“I’m happy to play my part. I want us all to get back to our families.”
An ache gripped my heart with the reminder that my homeworld of Erusan now only existed in the Master Archive, beyond my present grasp. “We’ll leave you to it.” I turned back toward the path I’d taken earlier with Kaiden.
He followed me. When we had gone several meters in, he jogged forward so we were walking abreast. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this new investigation of Toran’s?”
“You too?” I shook my head. “I was really hoping it was just me.”
“No, this situation is way too messed up.” He sighed.
“I want to be ready for whatever confrontation is coming.”
“You did great in the last one.”
“But that wasn’t against the core of the Darkness—it was tests the crystalline network’s creators wanted us to pass,” I countered. “The next fight is for real.”
Kaiden stopped as we reached the open area serving as the practice grounds. “We’ll get through this Elle. I trust that those trials were designed to prepare us for facing whatever danger may come our way, and now we have the skills, fortitude, and bonds to take on whatever those alien bastards may throw at us.”
I tilted my head. “I kind of like seeing you all fired up.”
“I believe in what we’re doing.”
“Me too, though it’s not like we can say ‘no’… We’re it—we’re the plan.”
“I can’t think of a better quartet to save the day.”
I laughed. “Except maybe a quartet of trained, experien
ced people who actually know what they’re doing.”
“For faking it, we’re doing a pretty spectacular job.”
“I suppose we are. Speaking of which,” I sized up the boulder I decapitated earlier, “I should probably get back to pretending I know magic.”
“An excellent plan.” Kaiden leaned against a nearby rock.
I held out my hand toward the boulder and tried to clear my mind. However hard I tried, thoughts of the oppressive force of the Darkness kept creeping in. I closed my eyes and shook my head in an attempt to clear it. When I re-opened my eyes, I discovered that an energy orb was starting to form in my palm. Unlike the others I’d cast, though, this one was black.
“Um… Kaiden?” I wasn’t sure if I should try to dispel the new magic or find out what it could do.
I heard him take a step away behind me. “We came out here to learn new skills.” His tone was less than assured, but I was just as wary of the black cloud swirling in my palm that looked suspiciously like the Darkness.
“All right, here goes.” I released the orb.
It shot from my palm and enveloped the boulder just like the levitating spell, but this time there was no immediate result. I kept waiting for the rock to be mutated into something else, given what we’d witnessed the Darkness do, but three seconds passed with no apparent effect aside from the black cloud.
Then, my sense of reality warped. The boulder began to compress, like it was dough in a baker’s hands being flatted into a biscuit. When the boulder was half of its original height, the sides also began to draw inward. As it condensed, the blackness surrounding it became more intense until there was only a black mass the size of my fist where the three-meter-tall boulder once stood. The perfect, black orb dropped onto the gravel with a thud.
“Whoa,” Kaiden murmured behind me.
“Was not expecting that,” I whispered. I took a steadying breath. “I think I’m a freak. It’s official.”
“Jury is still out on all of us, but you’re fascinating and talented if nothing else.” Gravel crunched underfoot as Kaiden walked past me toward the black orb resting on the ground. When he reached it, he nudged it with his toe. It didn’t budge. “What the…?”