by P. S. Power
Gwen Farris:
The Mask of Omegon
P.S. Power
Orange Cat Publishing
Copyright 2016
Chapter one
The cave was dark and terrifying. There was no way that a place like that wouldn’t be to Gwen. Not now, after coming so close to seeing the return of the Elder Gods like she had. A sense that one of the beings was going to reach through a tear in space from behind her lingered. Constantly. Now she felt like death was always right there for her, every time the lights went low. To be honest about it, the sense barely went away in the light.
Worse, being underground like they had been when the spell had been cast that nearly destroyed the world, ripped at her. It wasn’t simply a personal weakness either. Each and every person that had been there at the time, including the few surviving bad guys, had reported the same thing. A sense that they were about to die. Eternally hovering just outside of their ability to see or comprehend.
On the great side, she was used to that sort of thing now. More or less. Fear was her constant companion, but it didn’t really get worse than what she lived with most of the time. At least that was what she told herself at the moment.
It really didn’t help that she was standing there alone, facing what had to be the scene of a magical ritual. In fact, she could see some of the different elements of the thing right in front of her. She’d brought a light with her, so it was pretty much plain as day.
“One altar. Made of stone. Familiar, but not exactly all that new. They all do that when they want to sacrifice people. Though this one is kind of small for that. About four feet. So for little kids, or possibly animals?” She wasn’t speaking to anyone, but her own voice, the only familiar thing in the very dim space which was lit only by the magical device she held out in front of her, a glow lamp, soothed her on some level. Making it feel like she wasn’t standing there on her own.
Given that the only other people that would have been there would be the bad ones, that was probably not that great of a thing to relish. She was though. Even having a single human being with her would be better than being on her own. Even if they were trying to kill her. They could wrestle. It would be fun.
So she decided to keep talking to herself, thinking out loud. It felt better and that was enough of a reason that day.
“There’s only one ceremonial blade. One chalice. That isn’t unheard of, but the whole thing feels off. Like… There was only one magician involved. No body either. Then the reports didn’t speak about anyone going missing or bodies being found. No animals though… or signs of blood. Just vast amounts of power being raised.” Which wasn’t normally going to be doable without a lot of death being involved.
Not unless the practitioner was incredibly powerful, as far as magic went.
Gwen actually did all right that way, for some reason. The body that she was in now, in this strange steam-punk-magic world, had been born into a lot of ability as far as that went. Then, once she’d learned a bit about how the powers there worked, she’d managed to build up to a few useful tricks. Power blasts, flying and even precognition. Other nifty things too. Like teleportation. Not all that she needed to be able to do, but enough to start with.
Enough that King Ferdinand had asked her to go, on her own, to investigate the scene of the crime there. If it was one at all. After all, if a magician had just been raising power without death, to say, make some cash or even make himself more attractive to women, that wasn’t something to send her in for. It was, more or less, make-work in that case. A thing to keep her busy, while her buddy Bethany Westmorland sat around being pampered.
She was the first one of the super soldiers to have the government mandated sterilization reversed and get pregnant, after all. That meant there were several thousand people who really wanted to take care of her suddenly. It was a good thing, naturally. Even a brilliant one. An idea that Gwen had never thought would be honestly allowed.
She, Beth Westmorland, was actually moving on and getting to have a life. A real one. Complete with husband and soon a child. Like everyone else got a shot at. Most people, at any rate. The regular ones that worked in factories, who weren’t from other realities.
Soon, the rest of her family, the super soldier slaves of the Western Kingdom, would be doing the same thing. Leaving her, the woman from another world, far behind. Like they should.
The space around her was slightly damp feeling, which made sense, being a cave. It wasn’t large either. The mouth of the hole had been covered, but easy to find really. A fake bush that was half left off of the thing. Making the opening visible as she’d walked along the path. Even in the twilight.
“So, my magician friend, what were you getting up to? If not bringing in Elder Gods or killing young women for fun. Which I have to admit this set up wouldn’t allow, then what in the world are you getting up to?”
She was speaking to the air, facing the altar still, which was at the back of the small cave. About ten or fifteen feet inside of the thing. It probably would have been light enough to see if it had been daylight out. Being insane like she was, Gwen had gone out from her hotel as night fell. That was when the energy had been causing some notice in the nearby city, so it was when she’d needed to come to find the place. At least to her own way of thinking, since she was there to take out the evil magicians that were killing all those non-existent girls and children for their life force. It clearly wasn’t the case, so now she felt a bit foolish, if she were going to be honest about it.
From behind her there was a voice. It sounded youthful, but caused her to jump anyway. A bit muffled, which she understood when she spun in place to see who was there.
“I’m trying to fix what went wrong.” The words were spoken like a line from a movie. Possibly a play, given the world she was in at the moment. They didn’t exactly have television after all. It was a failing, as far as Gwen was concerned.
Light came from her hand-lamp, which was what the shined copper tube, a thing that was essentially a flashlight, had been named in this world. It was powered by a crystal pack in the handle, which would only give her about a day’s worth of light. Then, if it ran out of power, she could top it back up in a few minutes, using her mind and a bit of focus. It was useful, being able to do things like that.
Gwen didn’t scream at the human like form. Instead she froze, her voice clamping down first thing, as she made out what seemed to be a blue headed thing. It had tentacles hanging down over its mouth. That was a bit too familiar, though the last ones had been pink and flesh colored. Standing there in almost the right place to be one of the Elder Gods coming through the rip in space that always felt like death and terror.
At first she wanted to run away, but that would mean fighting her way past the monster headed man. Then, before Gwen did anything, she noticed something off about the would be attacker. The person wasn’t huge for one thing, being about five-ten or so. They seemed male, and looked a little thin. Not like she still was, which had gotten to a dangerously low state, after being kept prisoner for several years. Still, for a normal man, he was on the small side. Slender. His clothing was nice enough. Not rich seeming, but well cared for. A button up gray shirt that seemed to have been ironed. Black trousers that had that same look to them. With dingy brown boots that needed to be polished. Those didn’t fit the scene in particular. Then, none of it did with the blue squid head.
Then she saw that it wasn’t just a mask, but was a knit thing. Like a pull over ski-mask with a strange face on it. As in what might have been made by somebody’s bored grandmother. If she were a psychopath that mainlined horror movies, between bouts of psychosis. A thing made of yarn. With ho
les in it for eyes. If it hadn’t been so freaky and Cthulu-esque, it would have been cool.
It probably was, if you were a bit of a nerd. Which, to be fair, Gwen always kind of had been. Really, she was mainly reacting to the part where they were alone. Also the fact that it linked a bit too well to her personal history, as far as things to be scared of went.
“Hello! You startled me a bit. So, you’re the one that’s been raising all the power around here? I don’t see any blood, so… This probably isn’t illegal. What’s gone wrong? If you don’t mind me asking, that is.” She was thinking that it would be about death. Something dark perhaps… At least the man trying to control some poor woman’s mind to force her to love him.
The boy and Gwen was almost certain this wasn’t a grown man, sighed.
“Nothing too dire, to be truthful. Not that exciting either. I’ve been trying to make certain that the forest here keeps growing. There’s been a beetle blight. Have you seen the oak trees on the southern side? So, I come a few times a week and do a little ceremony to try and save them.” He paused, then placed his hands on his hips, one foot forward. It was contrived as all hell, but seemed practiced and like it was meant to be a thing.
“I’m Omegon, by the way. Protector of the light! Bane of those who would do my world harm!” First his fists went to his hips. Followed by a rather geeky pose. Like a cosplayer at a convention might have done. If they weren’t planning on getting any sex that weekend. Gwen had seen several of them online, back in the day. Before being kidnapped to a different world where computers weren’t a thing at all.
Then the knit monster mask was pulled off, showing that she’d been about right in her assumptions about the fellow. The guy was about seventeen, at a raw guess. Not that she was great at working out things like that. So he might be older, or even years younger than that. Playing monster hero in the woods kind of spoke to the second idea to her mind. He had dark brown hair and eyes that showed nearly black colored irises. Probably a deep brown, as shown in the shadowed light of her hand-lamp. It was hard to tell, but the guy was better looking than average. Even if he did have strange hobbies. Not that magic was that weird where they were at the moment.
A bit nervously he cleared his throat.
“You can call me Tomas, if you’d rather? Tom Moore.”
She smiled then, smoothing her dress with her right hand. It wasn’t that she loved being all girly, as much as the fact that she wasn’t on official duty at the moment. Being out in public in trousers and a jacket was doable for a woman, but going alone that way would have marked her as being a magician. With a buddy along for the ride, people would have simply assumed she was a lesbian. A tribad, as they called them there. At least she thought that was the way it went. People might have actually been a bit more forgiving than that. The point was, if she wanted to blend, it had to be done in a dress. Just like she had to have at least a bit of makeup on. It was odd enough for her to be out alone like she was that some had already noticed.
In fact, most people there would have freaked at the moment, her being in a cave alone with Omegon. That pretty much meant they were having sex to most people in that world. The Western Kingdom at any rate. Other places had different rules that way, or so she’d heard. Not that she was against that kind of thing, personally. It just wasn’t the sort of issue that really came up for her in life. Which left her feeling a tiny bit sad, at the moment. No one really wanted to have relations with the traitor. Not in any world she could imagine at least.
In Europa no one would have condemned either of them for being there actually doing that kind of thing. Not as long as they were both adults. In Marduk it wouldn’t be a huge deal either. She didn’t think. It would depend on how her husband thought about things like that, most likely. Not that she had one of those. It was just that there she would have. She thought. It wasn’t like she was an expert on that land. Any of them, to be honest. Including the one she was standing in.
“I’m Gwen. Gwen Farris.” It was true enough, but the boy seemed puzzled at the name. Really, the look he gave her spoke of more than that. Disbelief was part of it. Disdain was in there too. At least she figured that was the case.
“From the telesar? That… Seems unlikely. Not that I’m saying you can’t be her, if you wish, but this is a bit out of the way, isn’t it? I can’t imagine that I’d often run into Gwen Farris while playing my little hero games. No, you seem more like a Beth to me… An intrepid investigator, perhaps? You need a partner for that however, so that no one will think the wrong thing, being out and about alone. Though if you are being Gwen, that might not be the incorrect idea?”
The young man, Omegon, suddenly seemed a bit uneasy.
Gwen didn’t get it since she wasn’t insane, but tilted her head. After all, it wasn’t how her mind normally ran, but it could be that her sexy, sexy body was distracting him. That, or her relative fame. She had that in the Western Kingdom. Not in a good way either. It was bad enough that pretending to be Beth was suddenly kind of appealing.
“Really? I can see that, since Bethany is incredibly awesome. Blonde though, so it won’t really work. Would it help to know that I was sent by the King himself? I’m almost certain he’s just trying to keep me busy. You heard about the Europa thing?” It had made the news. For months. Possibly even still, over half a year later. She’d tried not to listen to the telesar in that time. Thankfully, working as a palace guard for the Queen, it rarely came up. Marianna preferred live music, which she could get, being her.
There was a slow nod and a sour look. The man’s voice shifted a bit as well. It probably meant he was insane, but so far it seemed an innocent enough thing. Like a boy playing a game of being more than he really was, as had been mentioned. He was a bit old for that kind of thing, perhaps, but… Role Playing was a thing in her world, too. It kind of seemed like that was what was going on there. Only with real magic.
Which was freaking awesome. Even if he did do it while wearing a creepy mask.
“That the woman who stole you from your rightful world, Kathrine Vernor, still lives on in your mind and betrayed us all, giving the Europans the key to rifting? I might have heard something about that one. Yes. For a few years. Well, at first it was thought that you, Gwen Farris, were the one doing it. That… That part was harder for people.” He swallowed, and looked very young suddenly. Kind of cute as well. Maybe more than just a bit, if she were going to be honest about it. He was, she thought, nearly good enough looking to be an actor.
Not that she was all that picky.
A man not running away from her too fast or spitting in her general direction kind of seemed like a prince to her way of thinking. It had been better, before she woke up one day to find that Katherine had taken her body back for several years. Gwen wouldn’t have ever been allowed to come back, except that the woman had gotten them trapped in a foreign land, in what was essentially a mental hospital.
Chained to a bed, with magical wards that prevented her from using her powers to leave. So in desperation the spoiled heiress and traitor to her own people had gotten Gwen back out. Unpacking her from the dusty recesses of her mind. Like an old tool box. To save her. It had worked. That part had been close however. Her ankle had been broken when she’d teletransported away, one of the cuffs trying to hold her in place.
It had been a few months since then. Over half a year, to be honest.
Gwen still wasn’t a hundred percent.
She’d been eating, exercising and pretty much staying out of the press when she could. Until three days before that point, when Ferdinand had sent her away from his palace. Politely. Suggesting that he didn’t have a right to keep her any longer than that. Not that she blamed him at all. Her job there was helping to watch the new Queen. The woman wasn’t exactly perfect, especially with the Westmorlands. The lady saw them as a constant danger, since some of them were basically able to explode like atomic bombs.
Gwen could do that as well. It was a secret, though for some r
eason the Queen knew all about that part. It didn’t seem to bother her at all. Why that was, Gwen had never gotten out of her. It was kind of strange, but the woman actually seemed to like her. Bethany too, for all she could barely stand most of the others of that family.
Marianna was nothing if not free thinking. As in she believed whatever suited her at the moment. Oddly enough, her mood had started to change as soon as Beth had gotten pregnant. As if being with child meant she couldn’t possibly be a horrible monster, due to that single fact.
Omegon moved his mask a bit in his hand, as if trying to hide it suddenly. At the same time he was staring at her, closely. Possibly recognizing who she actually was. If he were smart, which there was no reason to imagine he wasn’t, he might well be considering her death. Not that she loved his chances. She pretty much walked around armed all the time now. More than that, she could kill by pointing her finger, teleport and fly away. If she wanted, she could just pick the man up with her mind and dash him into the cave wall. Most magic users couldn’t do that kind of thing at all, even if they were pretty strong.
That this boy was decent that way just made sense. He seemed to focus on ceremony though, which wasn’t all that fast. Not when someone was shooting at you. It was still useful, since it left the magician able to do a lot of different things. Almost anything, if they were clever, skilled and disciplined enough. That and had enough energy to make what they wanted to happen come into being.
Still, a rock to the head might just take her out, if he tried hard and didn’t let on to his plan until it hit. A part of her considered that concept for a moment. It could work. Just going into that cave and never leaving. It wouldn’t balance what Katherine had done, but it was a start. The truth was that nothing she ever did would balance what the other woman had managed, using their shared body. The world might well end up being destroyed due to Kat’s bad life choices. It was sort of a major thing. Not one that would be easily swept to the side, either.