I spent my time on the roof of the warehouse we had commandeered, ensuring that should our friend return he would not be able to recover the boy, nor finish off my soldiers. The smoke from the downed carrier still billowed out into the skyline behind me. That damned boat was taking one hell of a long time to sink. I could only hope it wouldn’t explode before it did.
* * * * * *
Glave still hadn’t returned when we came back to the camp. I was beginning to get a little worried. It was possible he had fallen into a trap, but I hadn’t seen any noticeable increase in magical noise that would indicate a fight. It was equally possible that he was simply ranging further and further out looking for his quarry.
Our forces now controlled a good section of the city; the Russian survivors from the beachhead attack were disorganised and on the run. They were no match for disciplined and well provisioned soldiers. Most had either surrendered or fled deeper into the city. As we took control of more of the city, we discovered numerous refugee populations that had found shelter in Los Angeles. They had probably been in hiding since LA had originally fallen five years ago. They were in poor shape without decent nutrition and access to medical facilities. This led to other problems for us – mainly sourcing provisions for so many refugees. Refugee camps would need to be established and logistics for provisions would need to be set in place. Unfortunately without the carrier group, we didn’t have the resources for any of that. We would need to establish that from scratch; fortunately that wasn’t my problem. Satisfied that the soldiers were doing their job, I returned back to the camp.
On my return I was informed that Justin was ready to leave the infirmary. This was good and bad news. Good because it signified that he had finally broken free of the Mana fever and was less likely to succumb to his powers. It was bad because I had no idea what to do with the boy in this war zone of a city. I couldn’t very well keep him with me at all times. That would be an unnecessary risk to the boy’s safety, but at the same point I couldn’t leave the boy to his own devices, that could be an unnecessary risk to everyone else’s safety.
“You are to stay with me or Miss Perry at all times,” I instructed the boy when I collected him.
“Yes, sir,” the boy replied. He seemed compliant enough.
What the hell was I going to do with this kid? I couldn’t train him in this environment, and I certainly couldn’t disappear for long enough to train him without suspicion. How far I could trust Emily in all this? She seemed to be a better option than turning the kid over to the military, unless my suspicions were correct. If they were correct, things were going to go south very quickly.
“What grade were you in at school?” I asked curiously before silently cursing myself. The kid was probably four when the war broke out. He hadn’t gone to school.
“Can you read?” I tried again.
“A little,” Justin confirmed. “My parents taught me.”
His voice quivered slightly at the mention of his parents. Was it possible that his parents were mages too? It was possible, but it was equally likely that they weren’t. The magic did follow bloodline, but there was a difference between being a mage and having the potential. There was a chance that his parents had potential that had never eventuated and that Justin’s abilities only surfaced because of the vast amounts of Mana being thrown about around him.
“What have you read?”
“Mostly comic books,” Justin said.
Great, well that was just perfect. I couldn’t simply load the boy up with spell books and get him to learn on his own. He would need far more guidance than I had needed. I hadn’t exactly been the most successful student, but I at least had some experience in reading complicated technical documents before beginning my training. This kid had nothing. This wasn’t going to be easy. I really needed to take the kid somewhere and train him properly, but I couldn’t do that. Well, I couldn’t do that just yet. Not until whoever had been protecting him came back for him. All I had to do was wait. I hate waiting.
I left the kid with Emily and went back to my post. It had been three days and still no word from Glave. It might be time to consider the possibility that he had fallen in battle and wasn’t coming back. This would affect my plans; I had hoped to leave him here to protect the troops while I disappeared for a while, but it didn’t look like that was going to be an option.
I had been avoiding Colonel Brandon, but I was sure that Marcellus would have mentioned something had any new orders come in. He was no longer acting as second in command, but he was high enough in the command structure to have heard something. Brandon had replaced all my senior officers with his own. I didn’t blame him for this - he hadn’t exactly made himself popular with the rest of the unit. Still – he wasn’t doing a bad job. He seemed relatively competent. He never took unnecessary risks and genuinely seemed to be trying to keep his men alive. My men could do worse.
I wondered how long we would remain here. We had been sent here to deal with a mage, but after almost a week we had achieved very little. Maybe this was all a wild goose chase.
Or maybe not.
Just when I thought it was all clear, the Mana in my body began to tingle. I sent out a scry thread and quickly located the source of my unease. It was on the far side of the city, but still close enough to affect us, should it escalate. I couldn’t tell who the combatants were through the scry thread, but I could surmise that one of them was Glave by his Mana signature, and it appeared he wasn’t winning. He appeared to be making a rapid retreat across the skyline of the city, headed back here. I could only catch brief glances of his opponent through the scry - they were both moving so fast it was difficult to see anything clearly.
Glave looked like he was almost done for; I could see his threads were formed mostly of desperation than power. It wouldn’t take much to break them. Fortunately his opponent appeared only in slightly better condition, but his threads still hummed with power and speed. If I didn’t intervene then, the end to this fight wasn’t going to be difficult to predict.
I immediately summoned my powers and wrapped a teleportation field around myself. Once the field dissipated, I found myself in the shell of a ruined apartment block. The fight had already brought down the upper floors and created an uneven ground of rock and concrete debris. Through the wall I could hear the sizzle and crackle of Mana threads connecting on the other side of this building. I leapt over the rubble in my way – hopefully I wouldn’t be too late to save Glave. I may have cut it a little fine. Glave had been knocked onto his back and the other mage was standing over him, ready to finish him off. It didn’t look like this battle had much left in it. Without my interference, the other mage would finish Glave off fairly quickly. I had to act, and I had to act now.
I couldn’t tell from behind who this other mage was, but I knew it wasn’t Voll. Voll had a smaller build and this other mage was almost as large as Glave. There was something familiar about him, but I couldn’t place it and I didn’t have time to examine him properly. Summoning my powers, I swept a thread forward and knocked the mage down from behind.
He hadn’t even known I was there. My arrival was just another piece of magical noise thrown up by their fight. He had been so focused on finishing his opponent that he had ignored me. He should have sensed my arrival, but from the look of both combatants this battle had been going on for some time – both mages looked absolutely wrecked and depleted. Was it possible that this fight had been going on for three days? It certainly looked possible - their shields were only a bare fraction of what they should have been.
My thread tore through my opponent’s shield as if it was paper and sent him flying into a cloud of debris on the far wall. I heard the tell-tale popping noise that indicated his shield had been smashed. My thread had hit flesh and bone. This was over.
Glave clambered wearily to his feet; he was covered in blood and bruises that his shield was unable to prevent. He tried to raise a thread to finish his foe, but failed to summon the necessary
strength. The thread fizzled and dissipated. It seemed all he could do to keep his shield around him and he dared not lower that.
“Finish him,” he grunted painfully as he attempted to make his way over to our fallen foe. I followed behind the big man curiously.
The other combatant had fallen about ten metres away on the far wall. Glave staggered over a smashed concrete section of flooring to get to the other mage. I wouldn’t have thought there were many mages who could humble Glave so thoroughly.
My impact had made a mess of the left side of the mage’s body, but he was recognisable. I knew this man. I hadn’t seen him in almost seven years, but I knew him! His body was smashed against the concrete wall and several metal brackets had pierced his side on impact, impaling him to the wall. His head hung down, but I could tell there was still life in him. He gurgled and blood dribbled from his lips as he glanced up. I suppose he wanted to spit in the eye of the person who had killed him, but when he saw us his eyes widened in shock.
“Devon?” he whispered. “But… you’re… supposed to be dead?”
Gabriel Tychus. I wasn’t surprised that he had almost taken out Glave – he was a master mage in his own right before the war. He had been a former ally, and the last I had seen of him he was attempting to disappear from the world with Renee. He had seen what was coming and wanted nothing of it. He had all but begged me to go with him. I was often sorry I hadn’t taken him up on his offer. With herculean effort, Gabriel pulled himself from the metal brackets sliding down the wall in an effort to free himself. He left a red trail of gore behind him - he didn’t have long to go.
“Finish him,” Glave snarled at me as we watched Gabriel attempt to brace himself against the wall to stand against his foes. I shook my head in disbelief. How was it that Gabriel was here? It was mind boggling. Was he working with Voll? That seemed… unlikely.
Glave growled in fury at my delay and again attempted to summon a thread to finish the fallen mage.
“Wait!” I ordered, but Glave ignored me.
Glave struggled to gather enough power to adequately form the thread. I could see the power building with the big man, but ever so slowly. I couldn’t let Glave finish that thread – Gabriel needed to survive so I could question him. He might know where Renee was, and I needed that information desperately. No, Gabriel couldn’t die yet. I wouldn’t allow it, but it didn’t look like Glave was going to listen to reason.
“Wait!” I screamed, but the big man didn’t seem to hear me. He left me with no choice. I could see Gabriel struggling to raise a shield, but he was just in too bad a shape to defend himself. I would need to interfere. I raised a thread of my own and struck my ally down before he could raise his thread.
My thread tore through Glave’s shield and took the big man’s head off. His defences had been so completely worn down that his shield hadn’t even slowed my thread. Gabriel gazed at me in disbelief as Glave’s headless body hit the ground.
“Thought… you…were dead…” Gabriel repeated as he slid down the wall to the ground. His wounds were severe. He had probably broken most of his ribs on the left and also likely he had internal organ damage. Not to mention the puncture wounds from the metal brackets on the wall. It didn’t look good. I had survived worse when I had fallen to Victor, but I had been rescued by a fully qualified medical team and taken straight to a state of the art hospital. Neither of those things existed any longer.
I could see his dark skin fading as he succumbed to blood loss and went into shock. He was going to be no good to me like this? I could teleport him to the medic at the base, but I doubted he’d survive being moved. I could bring the medic here, but It was unlikely that he would be able to do much good here.
“You’re dead… He said….. that you were dead.” Gabriel grasped my arm before passing out. I had no idea who “he” was, or why it was so important, but hopefully I would find out later. So, I couldn’t move him and I couldn’t bring someone here. That really left only one option, and it wasn’t a good one. I sighed as I knelt down over my fallen friend to begin my work.
I ripped his shirt to expose his stomach and chest, and winced as I realised the full extent of the damage. It was amazing he was even still breathing. The whole left side of his chest was caved in and he was bleeding freely down his side. He should have died instantly. Freed from the constraints of his clothes the blood was now pooling at my knees. I could see his Mana force ebbing as it faded from his body. If I did nothing he would soon be dead, but that wasn’t the plan. I placed my hand on his shattered chest and let the Mana flow down my arm. The frequency of the Mana left a bitter and fey taste in my mouth as it always did when I attempted this. The last time I had tried was on the poor amputee who I had eventually killed in Poland. I had no reason to expect that today’s efforts would be any different, but I had no choice. I needed him conscious. I needed information and I couldn’t retrieve it from his corpse.
I watched as the Mana seeped out across his chest like a web of lines insidiously spreading across his body. I could see the Mana doing its work, causing cellular regeneration and creation. It worked at a microscopic level, but already I could see its effect. The skin around the wound turned white and then pink as the rent in his flesh was made whole. Slowly but surely the flesh was being netted together to promote regeneration. I would need to pour almost all my power into the effect to keep it going – it would require a vast expenditure of Mana. If there were any other mages in this region, they were in for a show. Fortunately for me, I was alone. It would not do for another to see this art being worked. I was about fifteen minutes into the technique when I realised something was different. The power being drawn was dwindling. Had I failed? No, the broken flesh seemed to still be undergoing mitosis and repairing his damaged organs. His breath was coming more easily and less in haggard gasps. The process appeared to be working properly. So what was different? Had I had an epiphany after my last attempt and suddenly mastered the technique? If so, how would I determine what was different? What the hell was going on? And then it hit me like a brick as I realised – Gabriel was a mage, whereas none of my other patients had been.
Once I realised this simple fact, I could see the effect for myself. It wasn’t my power that was being consumed – it was Gabriel’s own. The Mana in his body was actively fighting to preserve the flesh and duplicate the effect. Once I had started the process, his Mana had rushed in to provide the necessary power. Was it merely a question of the Mana though? No, there had to be something else. If it was only about the Mana, Victor would not have been able to perform this technique on others. I knew he had used this sorcery at least once on a non-mage. He had used the technique on Winters when I had sent him to hospital during a fight. Winters had claimed as much when he tracked me down afterwards. I had left him in a fairly bad shape – regeneration was really the only plausible explanation for how quickly he had recovered. This procedure couldn’t be used on non-mages or, rather, it wouldn’t be effective. It wasn’t what Victor had used, but it might be close enough for what I needed right now.
Colour returned to the Gabriel’s face and his breathing became regular and deep. The wound on his side had already closed up and I could see the Mana inside his chest repairing the damage to his organs. It seemed to be working. What I was afraid of was what would happen next. As I had expected, the newly regrown cells quickly turned necrotic, their brief life burned up like wildfire. The only difference now was that the regeneration effect was still at work. I watched with satisfaction as the Mana within Gabriel turned on the necrotic flesh and repaired as it, went leaving a trail of newly repaired cells behind it, which would in turn fall prey to necrosis and require repair. It was a vicious cycle, and there was no way to end it.
I watched with curiosity as every ounce of magical effort was thrown into the repair of the cells as the Mana worked furiously throughout the body. But eventually the Mana would exhaust itself and fail, and the body would die. I had only bought Gabriel minutes of life
at best. It was now time to make use of them.
Gabriel coughed as I brought him around. His eyes were wide and glassed and he seemed disorientated. “I feel… strange,” he murmured, “numb.”
“You’re dying,” I replied firmly. There was no sense in sugar coating it.
He seemed to take this with a degree of calmness. His eyes widened as he glanced down at the noise the Mana in his body was making as his flesh repaired itself over and over again.
“What have you done to me?” Gabriel whispered. His words were slurred and weak, and his eyes were unfocused. It was possible that he didn’t know where he was or even who he was. I would need to hurry.
“I’ve extended your life,” I replied quickly, “but only by a few minutes at best.”
“Devon?” It was almost as if he had finally realised who he was talking to. “How are you still alive? Victor said he killed you.”
“He tried,” I said. “He failed.”
Gabriel coughed as he tried to sit up straight. I helped him up as moving him now would make no difference in the long run. His battle was being fought at a cellular level now and not in a mundane.
“Renee thought you… lived…” Gabriel whispered. “But... you never came back. You never…”
Gabriel trailed off as his attention waned and his breathing quickened. He wouldn’t last much longer. I needed to get more from him before he passed. I needed to know where Renee was. Was she safe? Had she managed to escape all this? It was important.
“Gabriel,” I said, grasping his chin to face me. “Where is Renee? Where has she been hiding during this war?”
“With Victor…..” Gabriel murmured.
“Where?” I demanded as I sought to get back the man’s attention.
His eyes lolled back in his head. “And your son,” he finished.
A son? What the hell? I didn’t have a son. Even as I denied the knowledge, I remembered the look in Renee’s eyes when I had last left her. She had been trying to get me to stay, saying she couldn’t do it alone. I had thought at the time that she was talking about standing against her grandfather, but now I wondered if she had meant something else.
Mage Emergence Page 16