The Key would respect the whims of the new bearer, whether that would be to build, or to destroy.
***
It was time to act. The moon had crossed the boundary of the solar corona, and it would be less than an hour until totality.
John hadn't noticed the light change yet, but it would.
They spread out and approached the clearing. As they got nearer, John could see Pan lean down and touch the ground. "He's protecting the other ones. This will be a little tougher."
They knew what to do. They spread out even more and surrounded the second mercenary, the one "hiding" in the tree. Pan turned to his son and nodded. He would try to block the enemy powers just long enough for John to take care of the human left separated from the others.
John hid behind a tree and leaned slowly out. There he was, about 40 yards away, focused on the rustling caused by Arthur and Catherine walking on nearly opposite sides of him. John couldn’t recognize the rifle from this distance, but he could easily see it had an obscenely large scope on it. Clearly he was expecting an ambush, but perhaps not from three directions.
He crouched down slowly and touched the ground. He didn't need to touch the tree holding the mercenary, he only had to talk to it through the ground. Again he felt that warmth, the growing tingling.
But this time he wasn't fooling around with binding the hired gun. He was going to ask the tree for more help, but it required more energy, and John could sense the strain on Pan as he not only tried to block the protection from the nearby wizard, but hide that block so he wasn’t aware it was happening.
It was clear to John that Pan had the harder of the two tasks, so he tried to work quickly, gathering energy from wherever he could and directing it at the tree holding the mercenary.
There was an understandable look of shock on the mercenary’s face when the tree suddenly loosened up and threw him through the air. Screaming, he flew in a long sloping arc towards John, his rifle dropped along the way. He landed feet from John, but it wasn't pleasant. John heard a number of bones break, like twigs being crushed underfoot. His scream was cut short as he passed out.
John cringed as he thought about it, but his sympathy quickly faded when he remembered who these people were. Besides, he planned on breaking a few more bones before the hour was out.
Through the brush he could see the clearing, but it was still too far to make out clearly the three bodies at the far end of it. He could sense Pan far off to his right, Arthur and Catherine to his left. For the moment he would let Pan lead; going up against a mercenary he had no problem with, but up against another wizard, he was pretty sure he would be far overmatched.
He approached the clearing.
***
Sam looked around the clearing. They were near now. "Come on out Pan, you wouldn't want me to hurt this pretty little thing, would you?" He had been caught a little off guard. He didn’t expect Pan to be able to block him like that while they took out his last sentry.
He wasn’t going to take any chances now.
The ragged wizard walked out into the clearing, casual as Sam remembered seeing him, but he knew the lion underneath.
"Might as well bring Arty and Cathy out too."
Jessica's parents walked out of the woods from the other direction. "Only my friends call me that," Arthur said to him. "You can call me Mr. Walker."
Sam chuckled. He wasn't afraid of the old Englishman, but Pan could cause him some trouble if he wasn't careful. He could see Derek looking around at them, ever professional, but he could sense the tension behind the mercenary's facade.
He waved his hand over the ground beside where Jessica still lay unconscious. A dozen needle sharp roots rose from the ground, curved, and hovered over her.
"I think you know what happens if this doesn't go the way I like."
The old wizard glanced at the roots threatening Jessica. "What is your interest in all this anyways?"
"You know damn well, crook," Sam said to him, the venom starting to rise in his voice. "That crystal belongs to my family, we were the bearers before it was lost."
"Did it ever occur to you that perhaps there was a reason that it was lost? Was there even the slightest chance that the Key decided that it should make itself scarce?"
"The crystal has no will, old man, don't make it out to have a mind of its own. We came to you in good faith, but you would have none of that."
"If you are talking about Johann Gaston, then I think perhaps you have an inflated sense of your history."
"Johann was my great grandfather, Pan, I'd prefer if you spoke with greater reverence."
He could see Pan grimace. "Reverence." The wizard sighed. "Reverence for a thief and a murderer. Your great grandfather was not deserving of anything more than a sword to his neck. Be grateful I let him live."
Sam was starting to lose his patience. "Say what you will, but in a few minutes time the crystal will belong to my family again."
***
John watched the events from the edge of the forest, sure to stay hidden. What else could he do? While Pan tried to distract the leader, the one mercenary left was no fool and was carefully surveying the area. And the peak of the eclipse was in less than ten minutes.
Pan had told him that this other wizard would have the area around himself protected, and that probably included the mercenary. So he couldn't use magic on them directly. Directly.
He had an idea.
He touched the ground and tried to feel his way.
Trying to see without your eyes was a novel experience, and he wasn't quite used to it yet. Slowly he could make out the terrain, a terrain he knew well, but had never seen quite this way before. He searched for that one...yes, there, that would do just fine.
He knew he couldn’t attack the wizard directly, but the mercenary was about to get a surprise.
***
"I would in fact recommend that you leave, Pan. You make me nervous," Sam said. "The Walkers can stay. They have a vested interest after all."
"Oh, I think I'll stay for the show."
What happened next was almost too fast for Sam to believe.
Out of nowhere a boulder the size of a bear flew through the clearing. Derek took the brunt of the stone full on, and in a fraction of a second was nothing more than human jelly on the far side of the clearing.
It wasn't possible! He had Pan in sight, and knew he could not have done it without his knowing, he would have felt it!
His shock was hesitation enough that Pan acted. He could feel the energy coming from Pan as he directed several roots to rise behind him. He turned to see several sharp tipped branches headed his direction and was easily able to stop them.
What he wasn't expecting was a second large boulder. Sam could feel it enter his sphere of influence, he had only a fraction of a second to act. A boulder that large had too much momentum to simply swipe aside, he would have to block it. With a thought half a ton of earth lifted out of the ground and blocked the massive rock.
That moment’s hesitation cost him though, and he was unable to stop the bolt from Pan that struck him through his heart.
***
John watched as the second rock struck the mound of dirt the wizard had thrown up, but it had worked. He had been able to distract him long enough that Pan had acted, throwing a massive lightning bolt at the wizard at the exact moment he was busy defending himself from the flying stone. How did Pan know he was sending two stones? Or had he just recognized the opportunity? If that was the case, he had guessed it in under a second. John suspected he had a lot to learn about his father.
He rushed into the clearing and up to Jessica, just as her parents reached her. Pan walked casually over and kneeled down as well, placing his hand on her chest.
Within seconds she woke, gasping for air.
John snapped the tie wraps around her wrists as Pan stood back up.
"Thank God," Catherine exclaimed as she hugged her daughter, Arthur wrapping them both up in his arms.
He couldn't figure out the look on Pan's face. Confusion? He was turning his head to try to sense something.
Eleven: Deception
Someone started clapping from the edge of the clearing, where John had just been. They all turned to see his partner Will standing there. Standing beside him, bound and gagged and with a look of shear terror, was Zack.
"Very nicely done John!" Will laughed. "Very inventive. You knew you couldn't use magic directly so you just flung a massive rock at him! I love it!"
"Will, what the hell?"
"I'm afraid I have some good news, Johnny boy. Well, good for me, bad for you. You see, I've actually been waiting for this crystal for a very long time."
Just then, from one side of the clearing what must have been fifty men emerged from the forest, automatic pistols pointed in their direction.
"Unlike my former clansmen here, I came prepared."
John stood up and looked at Pan, who looked like his stare could melt iron. He could sense...something. Anger certainly, but beneath that, shame?
"Hello Johann," Pan said to him.
"Pan, before all I wanted was the Key, and you could have gone on your merry way. Unfortunately now that's not possible, and your entire family will have to pay the price."
"How were you able to hide yourself from me?"
"Oh that part was easy, you were busy looking for the obvious threat. A little misdirection here, a little push there, and voila! I should warn you, all of you, that any attempt to fight will result in a rather nasty slaughter. I intend to let the Walker family go, but you and I Pan have a bit too much history to go peacefully into that good night."
John stared at his son a few dozen feet away, trying to reassure him with his eyes, if that was at all possible. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Arthur helping Jessica stand, weak but recovering.
He felt like a fool. His best friend of ten years. How could he have missed it?
"Don't be fooled," Pan said. "He intends that none of us will leave alive."
Will smiled, and John knew it to be true. There would be much more death.
"You see John, as much as you think you know now, or as much as you think Pan must know, or even the Walkers over here, I know more. The Key does leave a genetic imprint, and that was passed down to me, so not only do I have the same advantages as your friends, I do something that Pan does not, I practice. And let's be honest, you already suspect that I'm lacking in a little of that moral fibre you seem to be so proud of."
A psychopath with more power than Pan. The thought chilled John to the bone.
"The funny thing about magic is that it's not really magic, is it? It's just understanding how the universe works, a sort of technology I guess. A technology of the mind, which unfortunately means that it has the same limitations as your mind. This is the reason I brought so many of my friends along. No matter how many you may think you can handle, I have more than that."
John could sense the frustration coming from Pan. But then he heard, felt, a voice in his head, a voice he had heard a few times in the last few hours. Jessica was talking to him privately.
John, she said in his mind, he's right that alone we cannot take all of them on. But he's wrong about one thing. We have the Key. We always have. I need to show you something, so hang on.
Then his world exploded.
***
The Key knew the past, present and future, and they were all variable. Probabilities played against each other in a never ending dance, one that some had found ways to manipulate. The Key hardly concerned itself with those, it's interest was in the now. It simply chose to perceive time, since that seemed to make it easier on the bearers.
It knew that, as time was perceived, the time had come to change bearers, so it would not interfere in the selection process itself. It would, however, permit the current bearer to request information, particularly from its "memory" if it could be called that.
Of course memory was the wrong term, but it was something third density beings could understand. It preferred to think of it as reflecting, and showing its current protector a reflection of the past was well within its comfort level, even if it was physically hidden from the bearer at that moment.
The being known as Jessica had reflected on its history many times, more so than any bearer in the past. She knew what to look for, what the various epochs would show.
She chose Atlantis, before the fall.
These were the days when the handling of the line of bearers was a formalized process. Society had organized itself around regular changes of protectorship, a process driven by votes on the part of the public. Bearers were permitted only a single sixty year term, then they were forced to hand it over to the next generation. An eclipse was not required for the change, since Atlantean society had the technology to amplify solar radiation through other means.
The Key showed the last election to John, and could see that he recognized himself as the person leaving his term though the face was different, and sensed his surprise at the information. It was used to this reaction.
Look closer, Jessica compelled John through the Key.
He did, and saw the man he knew as his friend Will. He had won the election after John, and had taken possession of the Key.
Jessica urged the Key to move forward in time, show John the time of the collapse, a mere five years after the election.
The collapse. There were many factors that lead to the collapse, not least of which was the cometary storm that descended on what would later be called North America. But the Key had the power to intervene, to protect. John saw however, through the Key, that the elected protector, the bearer John knew as his friend Will, failed.
Like how some individuals react differently to alcohol, the Key observed for John. Some are "happy" drunks, some become belligerent. He left it to John's imagination which this one was.
The last bearer of Atlantis. His arrogance resulted not only in the collapse of Atlantis itself, but to the near total collapse of society around the globe. "Back to the Stone Age" was a phrase Jessica had used before, and the Key felt it was appropriate.
This, at last, was what Jessica was trying to show him. John had been a bearer for 60 years. For over half a century, in a past life John had been the most powerful wizard, for lack of a better term, in the world. And had in fact spent 20 years prior in training.
His friend Will, who was now claiming ownership, had been a bearer for a mere five years in his prior lifetime, a lifetime he surrendered when a comet fragment destroyed the city and everything in it.
***
John understood. Jessica's little detour through the memory of the Key had literally taken no time, and with a single blink of his eyes, his world changed. You were a wizard more powerful than Pan for half a century, Jessica said silently. All you have to do is remember.
And he did. He remembered everything, more even than Jessica knew, for she had only seen what the Key had shown her; he remembered his teaching before becoming bearer, the decades of learning, practice, obsession.
He turned his attention to Zack. Don't worry son, this is going to turn out just fine. He felt his son's eyes widen.
Without turning his eyes from Will, he focused on Pan. Well father, looks like we may have a trump card after all.
He could feel Pan expend energy trying not to smile.
Finally he tuned into Jessica. I’m ready.
It was her turn to try not to smile.
***
Jessica knew taking John back would have this effect, that he would remember what being a wizard was like from those long ago ages. She had watched the life of that benevolent master many times, trying to learn, and had only moments ago recognized it as being John himself.
What were the odds? Pan's son being the same person as the last full bearer in the time of Atlantis? There were no odds. It wasn't chance, and she didn'
t believe for a second that the universe played dice.
But there was something else she didn't expect. As bearer she knew what power felt like, knew that electric feeling of potential that for centuries she was careful never to exploit.
The man standing beside her was about to exploit that power, and he didn't even have the Key.
Every hair on her body stood straight up.
***
John thought back to something Pan had told him. There were other dimensions, other densities where physical reality was either nonexistent or completely malleable. That was the trick, that was how he was going to save his son.
He reached out with his mind and felt the world around him. The eclipse was nearing its peak, and the sun's energy was starting to focus on them, intensify.
In his mind he could actually see the waves of electrical energy flooding through the solar system, striking the Earth's magnetic field like waves crashing on the shore, pushing and pulling, finding release at the poles as the currents followed eddies down to the surface of the planet. Lightning, storms, earthquakes, volcanic activity, everything was fed by the massive dynamo in the sky.
All he needed was a little focus, channel some of that energy. Not the atoms, not the electrons, not the photons of light...there, he could feel it, the endless neutrino pressure, wave after wave of pure energy, the building blocks of everything.
Beside him, Jessica gasped, and he could sense her eyes watering at the flood of energy beside her.
Will sensed it too then, and John knew he had to act fast to save Zack. He took advantage of that half a second of slack jawed awe on his former friend's face to rip open the universe, create a hole, pull Zack into it and deposit him to safety.
He didn't dare leave him out there though, it was still a dangerous universe, so he brought him back to Earth a mere half kilometre away, behind him.
"How..." Will started.
It was Jessica's turn. With a twitch of her finger, the ground shook. From one end of the clearing to the other, fifteen feet of soil reared up and blocked the view of the armed men from their target. Several tons of earth, rock and soil was enough to confuse the mercenaries, but it wasn't enough for Will, who with the wave of his hand blew it away.
The Syker Key Page 6