Teleporting was instantaneous, but tricky. He had to be careful not to leave a vacuum behind himself, the sudden violent boom of it collapsing was enough to rattle windows and disturb neighbors. He also had to make an effort to clear the space where he was going to arrive, failing to do so would have forced patterns to interact in unpredictably dangerous ways. While dealing with this, he also had to maintain the pattern that allowed him to leap from place to place through the strangely oppressive feeling that accompanied it. The actual act of teleporting felt unpleasantly like getting squeezed through a very long tube of toothpaste. After experimenting John had discovered it was best to exhale and teleport, inhaling deeply upon arrival. It was somehow more comfortable when holding his breath, even though it added to the disorientation that he felt when he arrived.
The sudden feeling of heat washing over him, combined with the difference in air pressure, was enough to make John’s head spin. He quickly sat down on a nearby log and let his body adjust. Since he was on one of the few high points in a low flat basin, he could see Augie walking towards him through the scrub, his ever-present spear in hand, and casually ready. It was some moments before Augie arrived, and it gave John time to get his head to stop spinning.
“You really should be more used to teleporting by now.” Augie sat down next to him on the log.
“I thought you said I was ready for the initiation.”
“I said you were ready, not that you had to take it, or that you were the best student.” Augie gazed at John through narrowed eyes.
“My fault for forgetting.”
“How were you supposed to know if you didn’t ask?” Augie scanned the horizon as he spoke as if looking for something. He paused briefly and flicked a couple of long iron-gray braids back over his shoulder.
“No, not about that. I forgot that you think I’m a jerk.” John stood and stretched.
“I thought my meaning was clear, I meant to express that I feel you are a poor example of humanity. I never used the word jerk,” Augie locked eyes with John.
“So is this part of the teacher-student relationship that I missed out on with Owen?” John was starting to have the sneaking suspicion that no one liked him, except for Radha.
“There is nothing that says we have to like each other. Nothing says that I have to approve of the choices you’ve made. I just don’t think you’ve grown up yet, I’ve done my best to encourage and motivate you, but you seem resistant to my best efforts.” Augie stood up and poked his spear under the log he had been sitting on when he withdrew it; there was a huge nasty looking spider impaled on the tip. It struggled briefly, then expired.
“You said that you would answer my question today. Why and how do I dream in patterns? How did I come up with that anti-magic pattern?“ John was sick of asking questions that were never answered.
“No one knows. It happens though, usually during times of great stress, some times during drug-induced hallucinations. A mage will simply see a new pattern and experience it in a very emotionally powerful way. It is not always a useful pattern like the one you found.” Augie spoke as he studied the spider on his spear. “Even to the very powerful, there are mysteries left to be explored, or accepted as limitations.”
“Are you saying I don’t accept my limitations? That some things are better left alone?”
“I’m saying that a wise man knows when to, and when not to.”
“Well, I’m glad we had that little chat. What are the rules of this trial?” John felt bad for the spider, it had just been hiding from the sun.
“There is a camp three days hike, that way.” Augie pointed with his spear and spider, to the southwest. “No magic and no technology. Just those knives you brought and what water you can carry.”
“Fine. Just hold this for me till I get to the camp.” John held out an expensive tablet to Augie.
“I will not, those things can be tracked.”
“I altered this one, it’s shielded and won’t connect to anything but my home wi-fi.” John left out that it could do that from anywhere via a bit of magical trickery. “Besides, it’s powered off.”
“John, mixing technology and magic is a bad idea, even if it is just to shield it. I’ve seen bad things happen.” Augie looked down his nose at the tablet, he would clearly have preferred to toy with the spider on his spear.
“I didn’t make a monster out of it, I just altered the case and battery. It’s powered off and harmless, I just want to be able to let Radha know I’m all right when I get to the camp.” John continued to hold the tablet out.
“Very well. I still don’t understand why that charming young lady is involved with you.” Augie hefted the tablet and examined it with a suspicious eye.
“I thought you knew? Women hate nice guys and love jerks.” John started walking off in the wrong direction just to see if Augie would say something.
“John, you’re going the wrong way.”
“Yep.” John waited till Augie had teleported away to turn around and head the right way. It wasn’t till later that John realized Augie had left with the spider still on the end of his spear. The image of the Luddite totting a tablet with a dead and neglected spider on the end of his spear humored John.
Radha liked working with people, helping people directly, and immediately. There was nothing better than telling someone they had a job starting Monday. Even if it only lasted a week, people were happy to hear it, and she was delighted to tell them. It made even the mundane filing and paperwork that accompanied her internship a pleasure. She also enjoyed answering people's questions about their applications and forms that they had to fill out, it was never too complicated. It helped that most people that came into the agency were professional and polite. So she suspected nothing when a middle-aged man with a British accent asked if she could help him with his paperwork.
“Excuse me. I was told you could help me with this?” The man standing at her desk was tall and thin, he had a shock of short blond hair, and when he smiled, small wrinkles gently crept out from behind his glasses.
“What can I do for you, sir?”
“I’m having an issue with this tax form.” The man smiled, his teeth were very straight but less than perfect white.
“May I?” Radha held out a hand to accept his paperwork.
“Certainly.” He handed over the paperwork and pulled a small chair closer to the front of her desk before sitting down.
To Radha’s surprise, all the pages were blank, there was only a yellow post-it note with a phone number on it. “Sir, all your paperwork is-“
“Blank? Yes, I know. I really just wanted to chat, and it’s been my experience that a handful of papers carried with a sense of purpose can make a lot of questions go away. It makes it easier to search an office like this one.”
“What do you want?” A series of unpleasant thoughts started to parade through Radha’s mind, and she tried to discretely open her desk drawer. There was mace on her keychain if she could get to it.
“I’m not here to harm you, so you don’t need to palm whatever weapon it is you’re reaching for in that drawer. It wouldn’t do you much good anyway.” The man smiled just a bit wider.
“I’ll scream, help will come.”
“Please, just listen to me when I say I’m not here to harm you. I just want you to deliver a message to your boyfriend for me. I have no ill intent towards you.”
“You want me to give a message to John? Why not just tell him yourself?” If he wanted John, then he was probably a mage or worked for one.
“Tell dear John that a long lost relative has arrived, that I want the family heirlooms back. As for why I want you to deliver it, that should be obvious.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“All the better for you, darling. Have him call me. I don’t really want this to get difficult.” With that, the man stood up and calmly walked away, pulling on a long winter coat as he did so.
Radha quickly stepped away fr
om her desk and found an empty conference room, she locked the door and pulled out her cell phone. She hesitated, wanting to call John, but she knew he couldn’t answer. She scrolled down her contacts list to Conrad’s number, pausing only briefly before she thumbed the green phone icon.
The phone rang twice before it was answered.
“Hello, Radha.” It wasn’t Conrad’s voice.
“Eric?” Radha had intended to talk to Conrad, but she almost felt better talking to Eric. Since he was a bodyguard to a mage, he might be able to help her better.
“Yeah. Conrad's in a meeting, what can I do for you?”
“I just had a scary visitor asking about John’s Primer, and I don’t know what to do.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“No, he was just creepy and made some veiled threats to John. He claimed to be a long lost relative, with a British accent.”
“Where’s John?”
“He’s out of town and not answering his phone.” Radha’s voice sounded hollow to her.
“Well, I could call some friends of mine and have them keep an eye on you.”
“Thank you, Eric. I’d feel much better.”
“Keep in mind they won’t be mages, but a couple of big guys with guns are a great deterrent. When is John coming back?”
“Three days.” Radha didn’t want to tell him but had to say something.
“I didn’t know he was leaving town for so long. When Conrad gets done here, I’ll fly to Chicago. I can be there by tomorrow.”
“Eric, you don’t have too-“
“No, I wouldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you. Was this guy dumb enough to give you his name?”
“No, he just gave me a phone number to give John.”
“What’s the number?”
Radha read the number out before asking, “Do you think he’s one of Veronica’s allies?”
“No. Veronica didn’t have the kind of friends that would stay loyal unless there was a profit. You’re safe, Radha. Word has gotten around about what happened at the duel, and people know John’s allied with Conrad. There aren’t too many people willing to take that kind of risk.”
“Thank you, Eric.”
“Anytime. I’ll call you when my people are there.” Eric hung up without saying goodbye. Radha returned to her desk and watched the door nervously, she felt better but wished she could get in touch with John.
The door to the study opened. A small group of people walked into the foyer, there was little talking among them, and Eric saw more than a few of them yawn despite the mid-afternoon hour. Conrad trailed behind them and closed the door behind him, his limp was more exaggerated than usual, and he leaned heavily on his cane. Eric stood up and went through the formalities of returning weapons, cellphones, and coats to the people as they left. What few words that were spoken were polite, if a bit blunt.
“I need a drink and a nap.” Declared Conrad once they were alone in the foyer.
“Scotch?”
“Why would I drink anything else?” Conrad smiled.
“How did it go?” Eric asked as he walked down a short hallway to a small sitting room with a good view of the expansive side yard.
“Better than I had hoped for, but not as well as we need.” Conrad sighed gently as he settled into his favorite chair in the corner.
“I’m still surprised that so many are joining us without being pressured by the government.” Eric poured a drink for himself as well as Conrad. “I had expected there to be almost open warfare by now.”
“I suspect that everyone sees the writing on the wall.” Conrad accepted his drink with a smile. “A feudal system of violent self-government can’t last. Who would want to become a mage and face the dangers and conspiracies? No one wants to do that except sadists, maniacs, and fools. But, a promise of peace and stability creates an environment where families feel safe to carry on traditions, and new students are not victimized. An end to the slaughter.”
Eric sat down opposite Conrad, where he could watch the door and not have his back to the window. He sipped his own drink before speaking. “It’s good to see the optimist in you again, but I can’t forget that more than a few of the people who just walked out of here have wanted you dead at one time or another.”
“Is that what's troubling you? Daggers at the peace table?”
“Not entirely, Radha called.”
“How is that charming young girl?”
“Scared. John is out of town on another mysterious errand, and someone has been asking her about ‘family heirlooms’ and making veiled threats.”
“I haven’t sent John on any errand as of late.” Conrad held his glass to the light and examined it.
“I know, he’s been doing that a lot. It’s becoming troubling.”
“He’s been keeping something from us, that’s been apparent for some time, but what?”
“Whatever it is, John left Radha vulnerable.” Eric made no attempt to hide his frustration.
“What did you tell Radha?”
“I told her that I would have some of my friends in Chicago make sure she was safe for now. I also told her I would be there as soon as I could.”
“I’ll be fine here for the time being. You go and tend to Radha. See if you can find out what John is up to. I doubt he would betray us, but he plays the fool too well.”
Conrad and Eric finished their drinks, enjoying the silence of the large house.
Chapter 4
Willpower. It was a word that John had come to appreciate in many ways. It was willpower that he put behind magic and patterns, bending and shaping reality in different ways. A force of will could be used to get through his busy work for a class to enjoy the more exciting material. He had used it to overcome his fears and confront his possible death when he fought Veronica. To say nothing of the times in his life where he had to exercise self-restraint, either against momentary temptations or his own emotional turmoil. Now alone in the wilderness of the Australian outback, John realized again that it was willpower that mattered.
The question was not if he knew how to survive, he had learned the necessary skills from Augie, the problem was in doing it. He had heard a survival expert say that at some point, it wasn’t if you could survive, but the question of if you wanted to survive. Because, if you're going to survive, you will do whatever has to be done. It was something he had never thought of before, and in thinking about it, he realized that so many people never considered it. Day to day, they struggled without the question of why they simply kept their eyes in front of them and staggered on. John had done it himself for years on end.
John paused to measure the distance from the sun to the horizon and consult his watch. He had a few more hours before he had to start thinking about making camp, enough time to make a mile or so. John sipped from the tube connected to his water bladder, drinking slowly to slake his thirst without wasting. He would need to find more soon, but he could make this last till then if he was careful.
So why apply that force of will? John started walking again and returned to his thoughts to ignore the heat. Others never seemed to care in their own lives and paid no attention to those who did use their will. No one would care or notice if John just gave up and went through his life doing what he had to do because he was supposed to, would they? John realized immediately that Radha would, and that mattered to him a great deal. So was that it? Was that why he struggled on and on facing dangers and risking his life, for love? No. Radha was the reason but not cause, and it was an essential difference to John. She supported him and motivated him, but she did not put him into motion, he did.
A scrapping hissing noise caught John’s attention, and he stopped in his tracks. First looking at the ground around him and then slowly expanding outward, he looked for signs of anything dangerous. Seeing the patterns and threads that wove through reality made it easier to spot the well feed snake off to his right. He was even able to identify it as one of the venomous species that made the
scrub and sand their home. He considered it as dinner and quickly decided it wasn’t worth the risk. John moved on and kept his distance between him and the snake.
“I do it because I want to.” John said aloud to the snake and the harsh wilderness they shared. He applied his force of will because he had chosen to. At some point between when Barb had left him, and the fight with Veronica, John had decided that his life was his own and he would live by his choices, not those imposed by others. He had wanted something more and acted on it. Survival was not enough, but that was where it had to start, with wanting to survive. It amazed John how it was always the simple things that built the complex structures of life.
Satisfied with his answers, John walked on through his empty corner of the world. He kept an eye open for a decent place to make camp, or useful materials to make it with. John was not about to make the mistake of sleeping on the sand with snakes and spiders, he might make other errors, but not that one.
Arrival at O'Hara airport was as it always was, crowded and unpleasant. Eric didn’t mind. To him, it was just another airport with the usual obstacles to avoid and get past. The TSA was not bright enough or well enough trained to stop the kinds of threats Eric was used to, but everyone got lucky eventually. Eric worked hard to make sure they got lucky with someone else and not him, just because he was off the plane didn’t mean he was in the clear. Video surveillance, air marshals, and paranoid civilians were all a threat that could never be underestimated. Once Eric was breathing fresh winter air, he reminded himself not to relax.
The Sin of Moloch Page 2