by TR Cameron
Anik frowned. “Won’t that seem like discrimination?”
“Yes, that’s the main problem. It could easily be taken that way, which would look bad for the shell company and really rotten for us if the connection to ARES goes public. Still, it’s the safest route.”
Diana sighed. “I have to say no to this. It’s not a good look. Plus, that's not what we’re about. We don’t have anything against the people using magic legitimately, only those who feel the desire to screw over others with their powers.”
Kayleigh expelled a breath. “God, I really hoped you’d say that. I didn’t want to do it either, but someone had to make the suggestion.”
That’s it. You’re staying. I will find a way. That’s exactly the kind of commitment I need on my team.
Didn’t we already say that?
Shut up, me.
“Well done, people. Good thinking. So, any other thoughts on the floors above?”
“More guards and better guards,” Anik suggested,
Kayleigh added, “We stop using it entirely. If no one sees us up there, they won’t be able to put the company together with ARES.”
Diana nodded. “Those are both good ideas. Let’s make them happen. We can do offsites if we need to meet people.” She paused and snapped her fingers. “Anik, you're now our vehicle supervisor. Congratulations. That’s a huge honor. Give those folks a call and have them do tinted windows all around. We’ll try to keep a lower profile everywhere—and other options rather than governmental black, too.”
“Got it, boss. Consider it done.”
“I have thoughts on the cars, too,” Kayleigh added. “If it’s cool with you, we’ll add more than transponders and tinting. I want to increase their sensor range and store a few of my toys in each.”
That sounds like fun.
“Your wish is Anik’s command, oh mighty chief technician.” The demolitions expert shook his head with a laugh.
“Good.” Kayleigh nodded. “I think that’s all we are able to do defense-wise inside. There will be more surveillance on the outside as well. I'll send a continuous feed to DC, where one of the staff can help us keep an eye on things. The delay is minimal, and it means we don’t have to vet another person up here yet.” She shut the projector down and returned it to the cabinet, then closed the door carefully. “Okay, let’s move on to the fun stuff.”
The tech crossed to the next locker, retrieved a new version of the stun gun, and tossed it to Diana. She caught the weapon and was immediately impressed. “It’s maybe half as heavy?”
“Fifty-two percent of the original weight, with a thirteen percent increase in power. It probably still won’t work on Kilomea, though, unless they’re small.”
The troll said, “Stupid Mirennas.”
Kayleigh grinned. “I took your idea and ran with it, Rath.” She pointed to a switch positioned where the trigger group on their carbines were located. “Up is standard. Down is spread beam. That will make it easier to catch bouncy things and maybe even get a few at once.”
Diana sighted down the barrel and lined up the targeting bump. “Damn, girl. Nice work.”
She laughed. “I’m awesome. I know. It’s a heavy burden, but I make it look good.” She took the weapon back and stored it in the cabinet. “I don’t want to take your current gear offline while I do the mods, so expect it to be a week or so before I have the replacements ready.”
The next item she revealed looked a lot like a metal collar. “This is something entirely new. I thought about the comms problems you had in the museum and about our increasing need to add a technological edge to your missions and eventually made this.” She turned the ring over in her hands so they could view it from all angles. The object appeared to be nothing more than a circle of metal with a slight bulge where the pieces joined.
Diana grinned. “It’s pretty. I think it will go with almost everything I own. It’s nice of you to be concerned about the team’s fashion sense, and speaking of which…”
The blonde rolled her eyes. “No, the boots aren’t ready. Relax about the footwear, woman.” She continued to turn the metal circle in her hands. “This little beauty does several things. First, it pairs with the repeaters that you’ll wear to increase signal output locally and in general. It feeds your earpieces and should be a better microphone than the one currently installed in them. Second, the device will send your biometric data back to me—fully encrypted, of course. Third, it interfaces with your AR glasses. But best of all, the collar has a basic AI built in, meaning you can interact by voice when needed.”
Diana couldn’t hide her amazement. “Holy hell. You got all of that in there?”
The tech nodded. “Yes. And it wasn’t easy, let me tell you. I’ll need to map each of your necks because it has to lay perfectly so all the sensors are able to do their jobs.” She turned to the troll. “Except for Rath, since I have your three-foot size fully imaged. Yours will be held magnetically to break away if you grow. But please pick up the pieces if at all possible. This stuff is expensive.”
They laughed, and she stored the prototype in the cabinet before turning back to them. “You can choose male or female voice for your AI and give it whatever name you like. Each collar will be backed up in an individual quarantine on a real-time basis.”
Anik beat Diana to the punch. “Male. Jarvis.”
“Damn. Jerk. Okay. Female, Friday.”
The tech laughed. “Don’t you have any original ideas, people?”
Diana put her hands on her hips. “What’s yours?”
Kayleigh went from triumphant to abashed in an instant. “Male. Alfred. I get your point. Shut up.”
Rath grinned. “Female. Gwen.”
She groaned. “Another Marvel fan. Honestly, you people. Get a grip. We’re a lot closer to Batman than we are to any of the others.”
The troll shook his head. “Iron Tech.”
Kayleigh laughed and looked at Diana, who nodded and gestured for her to continue. “Rath, we’ve talked about making you part of the surveillance team for the building. What do you think?”
The troll’s voice was guarded but carried a hint of excitement. “Is good. Different. New. More learning. What is needed?”
The team had discussed how to inspire Rath, and all the answers came with risks attached. They’d agreed that he’d be most useful doing what he did best—keeping an eye on the city. Still, Diana’s tone reflected her uneasiness with the plan. “We want you to do a security sweep for us as often as it fits into your other activities. We have surveillance, but you can totally spot things the cameras and algorithms would miss.”
He cocked his head. “Here? Home? University?”
She nodded. “All of those and more. The security agency, too. Basically, learn the place to identify problems before we see them in any other way.”
“And,” Kayleigh added, “I’ll have some new gear for you to use while you do it. That should be ready in a week to ten days.”
Rath grinned. “Is good. Rath and Gwen will patrol. And sometimes Max.”
Diana nodded. “Is good.”
Anik looked at them all like they were crazy, then shrugged. “Keep an eye out for stuff that needs blowing up, my friend.” He raised his fist for a bump, and the troll obliged.
“Will. Boom. Big Bada Boom.”
Chapter Twenty
“Damn it to hell.” Diana threw up her hands in frustration as the portal she tried to create failed. Again.
Nylotte shook her head slowly. “You’re close. Don’t let the emotion win. While some magic is enhanced by strong passions, most is not, including portals.”
She used her fingers to comb her hair out of her face. Offensive and defensive magic came easily to her, something the Drow mocked her about relentlessly.
As motivation, no doubt.
In any case, it was true that she was much better at throwing force around than at bending the universe to her demand to connect one place to another. Helpful internal-Diana
added, Or illusion. You’re terrible at that, too.
Shut up, you.
Diana expelled a breath and focused, using the silly ritual phrase Nylotte had taught her. “Betwixt and between, I will go.” She marshaled her power on the statement of intent, and a wobbly oval appeared. The attempt looked like it might crumple at any moment. She froze and locked her gaze on it, then imagined energy flowing from her hands as she outlined the shape in the air. The rift solidified to reveal the upper floor of the shop in its wavering boundaries.
Nylotte reached over to the collection of objects that sat beside her cushion. While Diana had worked herself to exhaustion to summon the portal, her teacher had maintained an inscrutable expression, seemingly removed from the experience. Only her occasional comment, whether correction or encouragement, showed she was present in anything other than physical form.
She’s probably astral projecting or some other thing I’ll never be good enough to do.
The rift wavered and Diana refocused. The Drow hefted something that looked like an apple but was a beautiful glimmering purple that the earthly version of the fruit had no chance of ever achieving. She threw it underhand toward the portal.
It happened almost too fast to see. As the produce passed through the barrier, a tentacle whipped out and intercepted it, accompanied by a wicked shriek. The spell failed, and Diana stumbled back in surprise and fear.
Those bloody damned mother-loving tentacles suck.
For once, her inner voice stayed silent, apparently agreeing with her feelings about the disgusting appendages.
Nylotte shook her head. “You’re closer but still not there.”
Diana sighed, dropped onto the cushion across from her teacher, and caught another of the apple-like fruits the woman tossed to her. She took a bite and enjoyed the strange taste that was a blend between peach, plum, and apple. Most of the foods in the kemana were safe for humans, and the Drow had promised not to deliberately poison her.
But that doesn’t mean I’ll leave my healing potion at home, either.
The weight of the metal container on the back of her belt was reassuring. “Every portal risks the World in Between?”
The woman nodded and her pure white mane fell across her face. She tucked it behind a dark, pointed ear. “The key is creating barriers that prevent interference. In time, you will do that part automatically. But at first, it is a difficult challenge to overcome.” The unspoken, “For you,” was nonetheless clearly present.
Yes, I know, children on Oriceran can do it, blah blah blah…
“Try illusion again.”
Diana closed her eyes and cleared her mind as best as she could. She opened them again and raised a palm. She pictured a flower on top of it, as Nylotte had suggested, then whispered the nonsense words that were supposed to bring it into existence. “What I see shall be.” Nothing happened. She concentrated harder, but her focus was elusive and finally escaped entirely. She lowered her hand and shook her head.
The Drow grinned at her. “You’re not used to challenges.”
Diana blinked. “What? Of course I am. My life is nothing but challenges, one after the next.”
The smile widened. “Ah, but there are challenges, and then there are challenges. Things that oppose you but that you are adequate to contend with are not real challenges, only obstacles. You are so often sufficient without really trying that when you find something that requires you to reach beyond your limits, it causes your mind to shrink and hide.”
“It does not.”
The woman simply held her smile and raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, maybe a little. Sometimes. But hiding isn’t the right word.”
“Okay. Would you prefer cowering?”
“Stop. Can we move on to combat please?”
“Avoiding? Redirecting?”
“How about departing?”
Nylotte’s laugh was a joyous thing, which continually came as a shock to Diana and probably always would. It was entirely contradictory to her teacher’s general demeanor. “All right, we can return to your comfort zone, my student.” The woman rose in a slow turn that uncrossed her legs and gestured to send the cushions spinning away. Diana settled into her preferred combat stance, with her weight pushed slightly back on a bent rear leg and her front knee pointing at her opponent. The Drow stood normally and her hands grasped her elbows lightly as she awaited Diana’s readiness.
She nodded after a moment, and her teacher spoke. “Fire.”
Dammit. Is it too much to ask to start with something I’m actually good at?
Seems like, the other Diana replied.
Diana focused and searched inside for the pool of power, then imagined it burning through the lines of her body, weaving through Chakras, and emerging in a wash of fury from her hands. Nothing happened. She conjured a force shield by reflex. It would have been adequate against a cone of flame or a fireball, but her teacher had lied. Time slowed briefly as her innate talent took over, but she’d spent too long in her own head for it to be of any use. The balls of ice slammed into her above and below the buckler. The impact, the temperature, and the magic encapsulated within the objects all hurt in different ways.
She shouted in anger as a red haze washed across her eyes and banished her modified vision. Without thinking, she extended her hands, and the chill that had invaded her body coalesced and traveled smoothly down her arms to emerge as a blizzard of ice shards that whirled at her teacher. The Drow generated a shield of the same element that reached from the floor to above her head in a protective oval to weather the storm. Diana slumped, suddenly exhausted, and Nylotte stepped forward to guide her down to the hastily summoned cushion that spun into place beneath her.
The world swirled in her sight, and she concentrated on not losing consciousness. A glass vial touched her lips. “Drink—quickly.” She complied, and energy flowed down her throat and into her body, enough to stabilize her. Confused, she gazed into her teacher’s concerned face.
“What happened?”
The Drow shook her head and lowered herself gracefully to sit on a cushion beside her. “You are full of surprises. That was something instinctive, gathering in the power that should harm you and using it as your own attack. I’ve never seen it before. If it weren’t so unpredictable, it would be quite useful.”
“Can we train it?”
I sound like Rath.
The thought of the troll made her lips curl upward.
“Perhaps. We can certainly try. But not today. You need to rest before exerting yourself again, or you could be damaged.”
“Shouldn’t the purple crystals protect from that? Isn’t that the point of them?”
Nylotte shook her head. “For someone who was born and raised on Oriceran, they are an essential…well, resupply is probably the word that would best describe it for you. However, your connection is not as strong, so they do not benefit you as intensely. They help, but they do not alleviate the danger.”
“That’s good to know.”
The Drow held a hand up, and a small lacquered box drifted from across the room to settle gently into it. She extended the item to Diana. “Open it.”
“A gift? For me? You shouldn’t have.” She took the package with a wry grin and opened it to reveal a black leather bracelet a couple of inches wide. A design was impressed into the material, which was far less rigid than it seemed at first glance. She looked questioningly at her teacher.
“It’s a charm bracelet. I’ve worked on creating one-time-use magical spells and thought it would be appropriate to use you to experiment on. Consider it part of your payment for my instruction.”
Diana rolled her eyes. “Awesome. Really. Thanks.”
The Drow raised a perfect white eyebrow. “There are two charms stitched inside. The material should protect you from being burned when they are consumed.”
“Why do I worry when you say should? What do they do?”
“The first will enhance your perceptions. All five sen
ses should be improved.”
“There’s that word again.”
Nylotte cackled. “Nervous, protege?”
“Not a bit,” she lied. “What’s the other one?”
“Basically, the opposite of the first. It should make you harder to detect by diminishing others’ senses when they are near you.”
She shrugged and put the item on, then used her teeth to hold the strap while she locked the buckle in place. She looked up to find her teacher staring at her with an infuriatingly amused smile on her face. “What?”
“You don’t like asking for help, do you?”
“Do you?”
“Fair point.”
Diana admired the bracelet. “It looks good. Thank you. Even if I am your guinea pig.” She met Nylotte’s eyes. “I have a question, though.” The woman gestured for her to continue. “Tell me what you know about artifacts.”
“That’s more a command than a question, is it not?”
“Let’s not get bogged down in semantics. Spill.”
The Drow showed her teeth in a mocking grin, then turned serious. “Beings have created repositories for magic since the earliest days. Some are more powerful, some less. It varies with the process and with the skills and potential of the one who crafts them.”
“The most powerful ones?”
A look of distaste swept across her teacher’s face before it vanished as if it had never existed at all. “Rhazdon’s artifacts hold the lives—or spirits, or powers, or remnants, or whatever you prefer to call them—of living beings. They are considered superior to all others.”
“People actually had such loyalty to her that they would sacrifice themselves to become part of her artifacts?”
The Drow’s voice was flat. “No.”
“Oh.” Diana’s brain took a moment to catch up. “They didn’t volunteer?” Her teacher shook her head. “That’s…terrible.”
“It is a violation of the most fundamental kind.”