Dragon Wave

by Valerie Emerson

  A hand grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. Jack’s heart tried to auto-eject through his throat, and he flailed to get away. He didn’t think he could fool someone who was grabbing onto him. He’d have to do something else.

  “Hey, relax. I’ve got you.”

  “Dante?”

  “That’s me.” Dante laughed self-consciously. “I thought I was going crazy.”

  “How?” Jack tried to wrap his mind around Dante’s presence. Either he was stalking Jack, or this was a coincidence for the ages.

  “Oh, I don’t know. Stress, isolation, whatever the kids are into these days. Come on, I’ve got a taxi waiting.”

  Dante led him out of the alley while a series of conspiracy theories raced through his brain. He didn’t suspect Dante of anything wrong, but he knew evasion when he heard it.

  “No. How did you find me?”

  “I woke up with my dragon pushing me and this dreadful feeling about you, like something awful was going to happen.”

  Jack spied the yellow cab up ahead, its In-Use light on. He hoped that was the one. He needed to sit.

  “I was getting stalked by some people who hate Mystics, or maybe just the four of us. I think they were looking for a fight.”

  “Did you give them one?”

  “Nope. I did what I’m good at.” Jack thanked Dante for the hand, then straightened and assured him he could stay on his own feet long enough to walk a block.

  “I wouldn’t know how to fight a normal human without hurting them. I’d probably cry for Julia to come save me. She’s the brawler…if she had shown up.”

  “Of course she would.” Jack thought he meant it, but his voice came out a little uncertain. She and Coraolis had been aloof, but they’d still help one of their own.

  “She always does the right thing.”

  “She tries.”

  Dante sighed. “I know it’ll take time, but it’s hard. I don’t feel like a part of them, of you, lately.”

  “Yeah, but you are. We wouldn’t be here without you.”

  Dante shrugged.

  “Listen. It doesn’t just take time. It takes effort. We are working on this. Don’t be a high-school girl,” Jack quipped.

  “I know, but I can’t be the only one.”

  Jack slapped Dante’s shoulder and grinned. “You know, I think all we really need is to be in the same room getting on a good drunk. All four of us.”

  “But Mystics work in pairs,” Dante pointed out.

  “Yeah, this isn’t work.” Jack grinned. “This is downtime. What are your feelings about swords?”

  Dante’s answer was a befuddled laugh as they got into the taxi.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Coraolis’ lecture finished with a play on words that had students laughing. He smiled when the less attentive among them laughed a beat later. He’d gone deep into certain theories, and young minds did tend to wander. Not that these students were terribly young; some of the Mystics in his class had been through one rotation in space. He’d had several of them before, and he was glad none of his former students were slow to catch his pun.

  He still had time left, but he didn’t want to cram in more information just for the sake of it; instead, he sat on the table at the front of the lecture hall, his hands clasped and said, “Now, I’ve seen several of you looking at the clock, but I’m not done with you yet and half of you know how I feel about cutting out early.”

  “We should do it as often as possible?” someone called out, causing a ripple of snickers.

  Coraolis shook his head. “Not today, I’m afraid. Today, I’m opening the floor to you. I’m here to answer your questions. It doesn’t have to be about the lecture. Ask me anything.”

  “Are you really half dragon?” Mystic Halle asked, her voice ringing out over the murmurs of her classmates. “Excuse me for saying so, but appearances seem to support that.”

  “I understand why you’d ask. I’m not half anything, I’m entirely human. But do you remember from your first class, the Theory of Resonance?” Coraolis hopped off the table and went around to his whiteboard, scribbling a quick diagram. A vertical line separated stick people from a stick dragon. He threw some lightning squiggles around the dragon.

  “It’s the theory that acts of great power in the Astral Plane can impact the physical and vice-versa,” she answered.

  “Correct…in broad strokes, anyway. Now, a dragon is a creature of great power. They project emotions the way a rocket projects explosive force.” He drew a circle around the dragon, which became the head of a stick figure. “My theory is that when a dragon fuses with a human, its emanations are so powerful on the astral level that physical changes manifest in the material plane.” He gave the stick figure horns and a little tongue of flame. “The human is still physically human. It’s his bio-matter that’s affected by the concentration of energy. You see?”

  Halle nodded, along with several other students. Coraolis left the picture on the whiteboard and returned to his perch. He pointed at another student with his hand raised.

  “Do you talk to it?” Onuora asked.

  “We communicate, but usually not in words. I get feelings, sometimes pictures. Next question, please.”

  “Does the dragon have power over you? Is that why you committed treason?” Titus asked.

  “No, on the first count, and I’ll ignore the ‘have you stopped beating your wife’ question. This was a bargain we made, to work with the dragons. Our actions were the answer to an ethical dilemma. Tell you what, I’ll sneak the moral quandary into your first exam. See if you can figure out which one.”

  The class groaned, but Coraolis smiled and pointed at the next questioner, who stood up to speak.

  The student was tall and lean with an athletic build. “One thing I learned here is just because I can do something, doesn’t mean I should. Do you take stuff like that into account? You and your co-conspirators are powerful enough to do whatever you want, as far as I can tell.”

  “Of course I do. We all do.” Coraolis dropped all attempts at humor, looking into the young man’s eyes. “In the bigger picture of the universe, gray is the color. There is no black and white. I kept my eyes on the bigger picture, the survival of humanity. As long as we had that, then we can be here discussing whether it was right or not. For the most part, I follow the code of conduct we’re given in the first year. I haven’t thrown the rules out the window. They still apply and, in the end, humanity wins.”

  “So why…?”

  The classroom door opened, and Julia stepped inside. The speaker looked at her and dropped into his seat, clearly not ready to question two Evolved at the same time.

  “And that’s my cue,” Coraolis said. “We’ll pick this up tomorrow. The lecture, I mean, not the Q and A. If you have any serious concerns, see me during office hours.”

  Julia joined him by the table as the students streamed out, talking among themselves. Some glanced at Cor and Julia, but that was expected. They were used to being stared at.

  “What Q and A?” she asked after the last of them had gone.

  “They wanted to know about me. The things we did, and the connection to the dragons.” He brushed his fingertips over the ridge near his temple. “I can’t blame them for being curious.”

  “Can I blame them for making you late?” she smirked, nudging him with her shoulder. “Come on, I’m starving.”

  ***

  They had a picnic lunch on the floor of his office. Julia had made quite a spread. Cucumber sandwiches, pasta salad, soup, pie. He counted the courses as he devoured the finger food.

  “I thought you didn’t like to cook,” he said.

  “I wanted to do something nice.” She shrugged. “It didn’t take much cooking.”

  “Well, I appreciate it.” He made himself slow down on the little sandwiches and started on the bowl of soup. He noticed the way she was picking at her salad. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. I’m just nervous.”
r />   “Right, your appointment. It’s only maintenance, isn’t it?”

  “Sure, regular maintenance after a long time away.” She tapped the metal plate near her left eye. He was used to her prosthetic eye and the outward signs of her being an enhanced human. He thought it made her appearance something special.

  “Ah. So, you’re expecting it to be like the first dentist appointment after avoiding it for five years.”

  “Yes. Exactly. Only this is all connected with my nervous system, including my brain. It seems a little more dire, you know?” She looked at her salad, frowning as if it was letting her down. “I was hoping you’d come with me to the appointment.”

  “I already cleared my schedule.”

  “You’re too good to me, Cor. If your face wasn’t covered in cream cheese, I might even kiss you.”

  She laughed as he grabbed a napkin and ‘frantically’ scrubbed at his face. He winked at her as he tossed the napkin aside. It was good to see her smile, and even better to hear her laugh.

  ***

  Julia sat in the examination chair that did, in fact, look as if it belonged in a dentist’s office. She was tilted back with an uncomfortably bright light shining in her face with electrodes pasted to her temples, neck, and spine. They tracked impact on her major nerve clusters. While the augmentation was all in her brain, anything that went wrong would impact her entire nervous system.

  Coraolis was only two feet away, but he’d been forbidden from touching her. It would impact the readings. He settled for sitting as close as they let him.

  “How’s it feel?” he asked.

  “Twitchy all over. I hope they’re getting some good information out of this.” She flexed her arms, trying to make the feeling go away. It didn’t work.

  “It’ll be over soon,” he promised.

  “I sure hope so.”

  “Good morning, Mystic Julia, Mystic Coraolis.” A man in a white coat walked up to them. She hoped that meant he was an actual doctor and could wrap this up. “Everything’s running normally. By which I mean, I’m seeing the expected wear and tear, but it’s functional. We’ve got upgrades for all of your hardware, including that beautiful eye of yours.”

  “Which one?” she asked.

  “Technically, either, but I meant the artificial one.” He grinned and leaned over Julia to make an adjustment. “We’re hoping to give you vision into the astral plane. You’ll have to let us know if it works.”

  “Will I be able to turn it off? That sounds distracting,” she said.

  “Yeah, yeah, of course. It’ll be an in-and-out procedure, but we’ll have you sleep through it. Some of the upgrades are in delicate areas.” He tapped his forehead.

  “Got it,” she said. She hadn’t known she was signing up for a lifetime of upgrades. “I didn’t know wear and tear were expected.”

  “Well, it isn’t that exactly. You’re putting more energy through the connections than they were built for. I’m guessing it’s this whole,” he waved his hand around his face, “thing. We need to accommodate that energy flow. You’re stressing the system, so we expect things to wear out.”

  “Understood.” She mentally nudged at her dragon, to see if she’d heard that. Guilt floated up from the depths in response. The dragon hadn’t known either, of course. “When do we do this?”

  “Now. Coraolis, will you stay a couple hours to assist her home?”

  Coraolis reached for her hand. “That’s what I’m here for.”

  ***

  When Julia woke up, Coraolis was there and the electrodes were gone. She didn’t feel different. Her eye worked the way it normally did. The ‘astral plane’ mode had failed, so she left it turned off.

  They went to their cozy apartment east of campus, just big enough to be home for two. So far, her main efforts were putting up photos and arranging new throw pillows on the sofa. Coraolis had a framed antique map he hung on the living room wall.

  They’d instructed her to rest a couple days. As soon as she heard that, she thought she’d go stir-crazy. She invited Jack over for board games, and Coraolis fetched drinks and snacks. Julia found a deck of cards and her board games in one of the boxes they hadn’t unpacked.

  Jack arrived for the impromptu game night with a pizza, a stack of books, and a guest. Julia’s smile froze in place when she saw Dante with Jack. Of course, he was welcome…he just hadn’t been expected.

  “Hey…” she said, Jack and Dante paused in the doorway.

  “Hey,” Jack replied, smiling. “I figured…” He stopped and shrugged.

  “No, no. Come on in. What have you got there?” she asked.

  “My favorite game from when I was a kid.” He handed the pizza to Dante so he could hold up the book on top. At first glance, she knew the unicorn and the dragon for what they were but wasn’t sure what the underground green thing was supposed to be.

  “Dungeons and Dragons?” she read out loud.

  “Oh yeah!”

  “I have no idea about this game,” she said.

  “I don’t either, but Jack says it’s fun, and I trust him,” Dante piped up. She could see that he knew he hadn’t been invited. He was probably squirming inside, and her inner host wouldn’t allow that.

  “We have pizza enough for all and seats for four. What do you say we give this thing a shot? Thanks for coming, Dante.”

  He smiled reservedly, but his face relaxed and his posture eased. “Any time. I always wanted to be an elf rogue.”

  Jack snorted and led them to the kitchen where Coraolis was making nachos. His face lit up when he saw the book in Jack’s hands. “D&D? Are you kidding me? I haven’t played that since high school.”

  “It’s like falling off an owlbear,” Jack assured him. “Or I assume it is because I haven’t played since college. Is this okay with everyone? I thought the four of us could use some team-building time.”

  Julia exchanged an uncertain look with Dante. He looked as clueless as she felt. That was mildly reassuring, even if she wasn’t sure how she felt about his presence. Jack was right, though. It was important for them to bond again.

  “Let’s try it,” she said, “but one of you knuckleheads is going to have to explain it. Looks complicated.”

  They sat around the kitchen table and demolished the pizza while they rolled dice to create their characters. Julia won at the dice rolling game and got a paladin. Dante made a thief. Coraolis wanted to play a wizard, but Jack made him roll up a fighter.

  “The game is supposed to be an escape. No magic for you,” he insisted, and Coraolis conceded.

  When they were ready, Jack opened a book held together by duct tape and force of habit. He launched into a description. They were standing at a country crossroads. There was a town ahead, but if they turned left, there was a legendary cave. People entered it and never returned.

  “What would you like to do?” he asked.

  Julia frowned. “Wait a second. We’re in the middle of nowhere? How did we get here?”

  “This is just how it starts sometimes,” Coraolis said, but Jack had perked up at the question.

  “You have no idea. You don’t know these people, you just feel a sense of camaraderie with them. As far as you know, you fell out of the sky. The only thing you know for sure, Julia, is that you’re a paladin.”

  “So we need to find out who we are?” Julia asked. This was starting to get interesting.

  “And how we got this way?” Dante added.

  Something clicked in Julia’s head and she started to get into the game. Her character debated with the others, fought monsters, and tried to fill the holes in her memories. By the time they wrapped up for the night, it no longer felt strange for Dante to be there.

  After the final goblin was slain, she and Cor walked their friends out. She was sorry for the evening to be over, but Cor had noticed the time and reminded her that she was supposed to be resting.

  “Thanks for this. It was fun,” she said.

  “Agreed,” Dante said
.

  Jack tried to hide his smile, but he was beaming with joy at the game’s success.

  “Glad you liked it. I’d like to make it a regular thing. We can call it a teambuilding exercise,” he said.

  “Or we could call it fun,” Julia countered. “Let’s do this again.”

  They all agreed at once, and after comparing their schedules, found a date that would work. Julia gave Jack a hug goodbye, then did the same to Dante. He had a surprised, pleased smile on his face when she pulled back.

  They said their goodbyes, and when they were gone, Julia leaned into Coraolis’s chest. She was tired, emotionally and physically. She hadn’t felt it while they were playing. Coraolis herded her into the bedroom, promising to clean up. She was out before her head hit the pillow.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The Doctors Ronasuli, Julia’s parents filled most of the screen. They looked about the same as the last time they’d sent messages. Her father had a bit more gray than brown in his hair, while her mother had her violet hair pulled back in a chignon. They had a few more lines around their eyes, maybe.

  Julia traced their still image a moment. She’d sent a long message the morning after Jack’s game. She’d started out trying to explain her choices and, by the end, told them about the roleplaying game. She wished they were on Earth with her, not on a planet that would take seven weeks to reach, yet her parents wouldn’t be themselves if they weren’t bouncing from one undeveloped planet to another.

  “Julia! We were so happy to hear from you. Don’t they have transmitters in the Exterior?” her mother asked.

  “We can’t expect her to stop and send us a message when she’s on the run, Fiona. They could have used us against her!”

  Julia smiled; her father always talked with his hands. It gave his words a dramatic punch yet also had a history of knocking over glasses and important experiments. Knowing this, her mother reached in front of him to move a glass of green liquid away.

  “I suppose you’re right. Well, Julia, we got your message. We’ve missed hearing from you, even if it was too dangerous to reach out to us. We don’t have much to tell on our side.”