The Wizard's War

by Oxford, Rain

  After dinner, Divina found me packing a backpack. “Where’s my ID?” I asked.

  “In the fire safe.” She pulled it out from under the bed. “You’re going on mission?”

  “Yeah. Edward and I are going to Earth. It will probably only take a few days.”

  “I’m going to Zendii this evening and Hail is going to Anoshii to see his girlfriend for a few days. So Ron will be alone. Do you think he’ll be alright?” She looked worried.

  “He’s fourteen. He’ll manage.”

  “He doesn’t like being alone.”

  She was right, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Honestly, I was rather shocked that Hail would leave his brother for a few hours let alone a few days. It was probably a good thing; Ron was extremely reliant on Hail and Hail would go along with any shenanigan his brother wanted to do.

  Aside from whatever trouble Ron got them into, Hail was extremely responsible. For that reason alone, I had no worries about him spending several days alone with his girlfriend. While I couldn’t have said the same for myself at his age, Hail wouldn’t do anything with a girl that he hadn’t carefully thought through. Oddly enough, Ron never looked twice at a girl and preferred to focus his energy on building his power to overthrow the gods.

  I had weird kids. I was almost afraid to think what my daughter would turn out like if I was ever lucky enough to have one.

  Mordon entered without knocking and Divina left. “Miko and I are going to Zendii on vacation.”

  For the past ten years, Mordon and Emiko have had a semi-relationship. The only saw each other about once a month, but that seemed to work for them. During the year and a half we lived on Earth, Mordon was more concerned with how Emiko was treating her son than he was about her. Emiko still avoided me; she never got over my refusal to kill Maslye, the arch mage and king of Treslen. I never told her that Ghidorah went to judge the mage, and I never asked what the Guardian’s judgment was.

  Her son, though, was a sweet kid. Even though Mordon treated the boy like his own child, we all knew that he was a reminder to Emiko of what Maslye did to her. Sen was actually an impossible child, so he fit in very well with the family; his mother was a dragon and his father was a mage from the future and a world that wasn’t even created yet.

  “When are you going to be back?”

  “In a few days. Where are you going?”

  “Earth. With Edward.”

  “Should I go with you? Miko can wait.”

  “No, go on vacation; you need it. You’re too stressed lately. You’re looking a bit old,” I said. The rest of my words were cut off as he hit me with a shoe.

  “I’ll see you in a few days.” He left, herding Emiko with him out the front door and leaving Sen. I was glad Ron wouldn’t be alone, but I figured Sen would bug him to pieces. Then Meri left to return to Edward’s cabin, where she lived semi-permanently. I was surprised she and Edward hadn’t married yet.

  Divina and I said goodbye far too quickly because Edward was waiting on me. I flashed Edward and me to Earth, landing in one of my father’s houses. This one was the first one I had discovered, which turned out to be one of many. Ronez had over a dozen homes scattered across the world, all of which he put in my name. This particular house was a few miles out of a very small town in Oklahoma, littered with protective wards to keep it from vandalism. It was a small, two-story house with a magic room in the basement.

  We set our bags down. “We need to do some research to find out where the hunter is now.” Edward said.

  Magic interfered with technology, which was the reason technology was so regulated on Duran. It was odd, though, because my demigod sons could use laptops, but one was liable to explode in my presence ever since I became a Guardian.

  “How do we do research on a witch hunter in modern-day Earth?”

  “I have contacts here. I’ll call Abigail and she’ll tell us where to go. And before you start…” he interrupted my oncoming outburst. “She has no relation to the Salem Witch Trials or Abigail Williams. I’m going to find a phone.”

  “There’s a town about five miles south of here.”

  He headed out and I found some extra blankets in the basement. While I was down there and alone, I opened the magic room to find everything as I left it, including the mage king’s staff. Somehow, I knew the evil thing would be necessary. I could sense it… however, when I tried to focus on the feeling, my head hurt.

  I left the room, closing it behind me, and went back upstairs. Edward returned about twenty minutes later, saying that he couldn’t get ahold of her. Since it was late, we went to bed. It was a creepy house in the dark; old, drafty, and had an utterly vacant feeling, which only made it worse when I could hear creaking and whispering. Constantly scanning the area with my magic and finding nothing alive, I finally fell asleep.

  * * *

  I woke to a new sound. It wasn’t the hard rain on the roof or odd scratching that disturbed me. In fact, everything quieted when I opened my eyes and sat up. Then it came again. Knocking. Definite, hard knocking on the front door.

  I went downstairs, carefully creeping past Edward’s room. He was a light sleeper; he should have been woken by the sound. Once downstairs, I slowly approached the door. Surely it was a neighbor who accidently locked themselves out of their house and needed to use our phone… not some psycho-killer going door-to-door trying to see who was stupid enough to answer their door at three in the morning. The knocking came again as I reached the door and I hesitated for just a second before opening it. Even as my palm touched the metal, I wanted to run back to bed and forget about it.

  “Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door. Only this and nothing more.”

  Here I opened wide the door…

  Darkness there and nothing more.

  I shut the door and locked it, tugged on it to check, turned around, and started for the stairs. There was a sharp creek and the sound of the rain increased. I turned to the door to see that it was wide open. A hand came down on my shoulder and I screamed.

  “Jesus, kid, you have some lungs on you,” Edward said from behind me. I turned to see him and clutched my pounding chest.

  “You don’t sneak up on me in a dark house like that,” I demanded.

  “Actually, that sounds exactly like the kind of thing I do. Why did you leave the door open?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “I was afraid you were going to say that.” He went to the door and shut it, then turned back to me and I had about a second to feel relief before I felt a breath on my neck. He looked right at me and froze.

  “Who’s behind me?” I asked.

  “There’s nobody behind you, Dylan. Don’t turn around. Just keep looking at me, Dylan, right at me.” His eyes flickered for just a second to what was behind me.

  “Who’s behind me?” I asked again.

  The breath moved away. “There’s nobody there, Dylan.” He was using my name; he was worried. I turned to look behind me. The kitchen door was open, even though I could have sworn I had closed it. Edward stepped up beside me.

  The creek came behind us again. The rain was louder. A cold gust of wind blew passed us. The door was open, and we both turned as one. Behind us was a Japanese girl, sopping wet with pale white skin and lips blue from the cold.

  “Aren’t you going to scream?” Edward whispered to me, not taking his eyes off her.

  “Too scared,” I whispered back.

  Her eyes focused on me and she grinned. “Hello, Dylan,” she said.

  * * *

  Edward sighed. “How did you find us?” he asked her. I looked at him and saw not an ounce of worry in his eyes. I looked back at the girl, a woman, really, and noticed a little more. Her lips were bluish, but the rain outside was cold. Her eyes were brown, not black like I first thought, and they darted between us in a way ghost eyes wouldn’t. She wore a black leather trench coat, which demons and ghouls wouldn’t need.

  She was alive.


  “I didn’t actually know what I was tracking,” she said, dropping her scary tone for a normal one. “So the stories about you are true?” She looked back at Edward. “I felt something incredibly powerful and needed to check it out. I had no idea I was tracking a person… or whatever you are.” She said the last part to me.

  “Dylan, this is Abigail Harland.”

  “Abby,” she corrected, reaching out her hand for me to shake. I took it automatically and my magic reacted with hers. My Iadnah energy dwarfed her nominal energy and she jerked her hand back from the shock.

  Odd… I felt something uncomfortably familiar about her magic. “Have we met before?” I asked. She was in her thirties or forties, but she had aged well. Before becoming a Guardian, I had been at odds with my magic and would never have known a wizard from anyone else if I saw their magic myself, but her magic was familiar.

  “Never had the pleasure. You came to investigate the witch hunter?”

  “Yes,” Edward answered. “I tried to call you earlier to help us find him.”

  “I must have already been heading here. I don’t know where he is, myself. Ask any demon or witch and they will lead you right to him. Ask the right one and they will help you.”

  “How did you hear about him?”

  “There was a witch coven that was gaining power and attention. My sister was investigating it and told me that it was a bunch of housewives trying to get back at their husbands for one thing or another. They had power, but that was all. Then men from their town started dying of strange causes.

  “The witch hunter arrived and spread the word of magic and demons. The people were religious and let him in. He did something to them. One of the people unfortunate enough to witness it said that the witch hunter did some sort of exorcism that had the poor woman screaming. She was hospitalized in a vegetative state. All of the seven women guilty of witchcraft were soon hospitalized. Two of them died.”

  “The men who went missing?” I asked.

  “Nobody knows, but the witches all promised none of them knew what happened to the men, either.”

  “Suspicious,” I said. “So you don’t know where he is right now?”

  “I was already in the state when you guys arrived. He’s somewhere close.”

  “Okay. Do you want a blanket?” I asked. She was shivering pretty hard and water was forming a puddle on the hardwood floor.

  “A towel would be great.” Her smile changed her completely from a frightening, ethereal figure to a very pretty, friendly young woman. I went to the bathroom and pulled a fluffy white towel from the cabinet. The door snapped closed behind me and I turned to see Edward.

  “Be careful around Abigail. She can sense that you are powerful, but you can’t let her know about your Iadnah magic,” he said.

  “She said there were stories about me.”

  “She’s right. The demons fear you because your father spreads your name and you have a very powerful demon under your control. However, Abigail doesn’t believe the stories and that’s how it should be. She doesn’t like to be threatened, and we don’t want her to see you as a threat.”

  “Is she a threat to us?”

  “Not outright. Her power would never hold up to a Guardian’s, but she is a very powerful and opportunistic witch. She makes for a better friend than enemy.”

  “Doesn’t everyone?” I stepped around my uncle to exit the bathroom. “Here. Do you want me to start a fire?” I asked Abigail, handing her the towel.

  “No, thank you. The weather will be worse the rest of the week, so I suggest you conserve your supplies. Who would have predicted that global warming would cause freezing winters and polar vortexes?”

  “Actually, quite a few scientists, like Doctor Michio Kaku---” Edward put his hand over my mouth, interrupting me.

  “That was a rhetorical question,” he informed me. “I suggest we wait until the sun is up before we try to find this guy. There are plenty of rooms. I’ll see you both in the morning.” He left the hallway to return to his room.

  “I’ll show you to a room.” I led her upstairs and pointed to the door against the opposite wall to the left. “That’s my room.” I had taken over my father’s old room, which had a private bathroom and study. I walked her down the hall, pointing out three bedrooms and a bathroom, as well as a small library. “You can use any room. Nobody will walk in on you or anything, except for maybe a ghost. But be careful; one of the ghosts is a major pervert.”

  She picked the room closest to the bathroom and left the door open as she entered. “How long have you been doing this kind of thing?” Abigail asked.

  I entered the room and leaned against the door. “Eighteen years.” Sometimes it felt like no time… then I looked at my teenaged kids and I felt so old.

  “Do you have a regular job?”

  “I was a doctor, but I couldn’t get on with the equipment.” Or, to be more specific, machines like the MRI machine liked to malfunction horribly in my presence.

  It was a decent guestroom with a full bed, nightstand, and dresser. The walls were a light tan color and the floor was hard wood with a black rug in front of the bed, which was against the far wall. The blankets were dark brown. Above the bed was a fairly wide window, displaying the forest.

  “Are you married, Dylan?” she asked, stripping off her wet jacket. She had on a dark blue, open-neck blouse and black pants. Facing me, without an ounce of hesitation, she stripped off her wet shirt and started drying her hair with the towel.

  I played with the ring on my finger. It took a lot of work to get it there, and I would be damned if I ever had to take it off. “I am. For nearly fifteen years. I have two fantastic boys.” Honestly, looking at her face was easier than it should have been. Even though she was a beautiful woman, with great curves and a toned abdomen, I just really had no interest. It wasn’t even the fact that my wife was unbelievably gorgeous, being a goddess and all. Maybe I should to introduce Mordon to her.

  “Are you going to have any more?”

  “I hope so.”

  “How do you balance family and work?”

  Balance was usually the only problem we ever had. “When we have arguments or problems, we just stick together. They all do this kind of thing, too.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous?”

  “Yeah, but trying to stop them is more so. That’s a pretty necklace,” I commented, noticing the silver pentacle she wore on a thin silver chain. The star was embedded with little emeralds, so it was more jewelry than an article of power.

  “Thank you. My sister gave it to me when my father died.”

  “Hey, I’m really tired, and Edward will be up at the crack ass of dawn, so I’m going back to bed.”

  “You mean ‘ass-crack’ of dawn?”

  “That, too. Good night,” I said, closing the door behind me. I headed back to my room and settled into bed just in time to enjoy the remaining wisps of heat. “I’m getting so old,” I told my pillow.

  * * *

  As predicted, the smell of food woke me way too early in the morning. I rolled over onto my stomach… but I couldn’t go back to sleep. Divina wasn’t lying next to me, warm and breathing gently, Hail wasn’t complaining about something loudly as Ron cooked breakfast, and I couldn’t sense Mordon because he wasn’t on the same world. Even with my uncle, who was more like a father to me than anything else, right down stairs, I felt kind of lonely.

  I got up and made my way to the kitchen to find Edward sitting at the small wooden table and Abigail cooking. I was shocked that the kitchen appliances, which hadn’t been touched in over eighteen years, still worked.

  I would have given them a proper greeting if not for being totally exhausted. Instead, my brain-to-mouth filter was nowhere to be seen as I spoke to the woman I barely knew. “You can’t go out dressed like that,” I said. Edward and Abigail both looked at me like I was nuts. Mordon would have supported me. “It’s freezing outside; you’ll get sick.”

  Abigail was wearing a
black miniskirt with a grey, sleeveless, open-neck shirt. Her black satin bra could be seen over the low neckline. Edward was reasonably dressed in pants and a long-sleeved black shirt. He should have told her how crazy she was.

  “Dylan, would you like to go through my clothes and tell me what I can wear?” she asked.

  “Yes, that would be fine,” I answered her sarcastic question.

  Edward put his face in his hand and Abigail waved her spatula in a threatening manner. “I’m not the one that married you, buddy! Do you dress your wife at home?!”

  “No, she knows enough not to go outside naked in negative ten degrees.”

  “I’m not naked!” she yelled in outrage.

  “Abby, please just put pants on. It’s windy out there,” I said, trying to speak calmly. It was so easy to reason with my boys, and Divina was never unreasonable, but I didn’t know how to talk to this woman.

  She flung her spatula at me, which I barely caught, and stomped out of the room.

  “What was that about?” I asked Edward. Maybe he could explain to me why she was in a bad mood.

  He shook his head. “I just wanted breakfast.”

  I looked at the spatula and the stove. “I’ll call Ron.”

  He stood up and took the spatula from my hand before heading to the stove. “You are so stubborn. You get that from your father.”

  Abigail returned with blue jeans, black leather, high-heeled boots, and a fitted grey sweater that looked great with her Asian complexion. “Better?” she asked.

  I smiled. “That’s much better, thank you.”

  “Oh, shove it.” She sat with a huff and crossed her arms. Edward set a plate in front of her with eggs, bacon, and pancakes, then got her a glass of orange juice. “Thank you,” she said politely.