by D. R. Rosier
Katie nodded to him for him to launch the plan.
He activated the enchantment, hitting the ground at his feet, and their protective field of ball lightnings surrounded them a hundred and fifty feet in every direction. Two seconds later, and he’d activated it again and he aimed carefully. It flew into their split formations easily enough from their higher elevation.
Lightning bolts and death started to reign down on about eleven of the groups of forty or fifty.
Katie muttered something he didn’t quite catch, and illusory ball lightning spells surrounded them so there was no escape.
He followed the plan and dropped two more ball lightning spells near the front, while Katie launched her sunburst spells.
The forward scouts which had moved forward aggressively slowed as they saw the ball lightning above them, and they started to fire arrows from bows.
The plan seemed to be going well, as Bria was knocking them all off course with earth magic. There was a long moment of indecision as fire and lightning killed a whole lot of aliens. Their position was untenable, almost half of them were dead already, and finally one of the aliens realized they were cornered rats with no chance to escape, and he screamed an order to charge and take down their killers.
Or so he assumed. He didn’t speak alien after all, but at those screaming words they all charged the hill that the four of them were standing on. Just as they’d hoped the enemy would.
He shot another ball lightning at his feet, doubling the spell over their heads so it’d kill sixty-four a second instead of thirty-two, then fired one more in the leading front.
It was intimidating and insane despite going almost perfectly. The aliens roared and the ground shook as they charged, and his heart pounded in his chest as adrenaline flowed through his veins. He focused through the fear and insanity as Katie launched a sunburst every three seconds that took out two hundred and sixteen aliens.
Just his three spells were enough to finish it really, but they could only kill so many at a time, and the aliens charged in overwhelming numbers.
A lot of aliens heaved their weapons, or shot their bows as they died, but Bria seemed to be on it. A lot of the weapons simply missed, but any that would’ve hit were deflected by her mastery of earth magic. The steel and iron tipped arrows and blades were hers to control.
There was so much lightning searing through the air and sending out concussive sound it was a miracle he wasn’t blinded and deafened, not to mention the flashing explosions of Katie’s white-hot fire.
All in all, it was probably the most intense ten seconds of his life as their magic tore apart the charging aliens. At least, outside of being in bed with his first and hopefully lifetime love. In hindsight, it wasn’t as close as it’d felt. None of the aliens got close enough for Sadie or Bria to engage melee.
Katie giggled a little hysterically, “Wow, I can’t believe that actually worked.”
He snorted, “I had no doubts.”
She raised an eyebrow in his direction, but he managed to suppress the smile fighting to get out.
Bria snickered, no doubt picking it up in his scent anyway.
It was still early, and between the two groups they’d used so much magic they didn’t have enough for the third. They could get the last one tomorrow. Still, they policed up all bows, arrows, and weapons scattered over a half-mile square. Saving the world and maintaining the balance wasn’t a paid job after all, and Katie could use it all to trade for years and years of foods she couldn’t grow or hunt herself, or maybe he thought hopefully, more of those sexy silken lingerie creations. Of course, she did have a lot of gold, silver, and jewels, but nothing was endless, and better a positive gain in her treasury than a constant drain.
They had a very healthy pile of steel weapons and bows, when they teleported back home. It didn’t cost them extra magic to do so, because Katie used her emergency teleport enchantment which just drew more ambient magic to make up the difference.
Chapter Fifteen
He felt refreshed and invigorated after a shower and some new clothes. He’d showered separately from Katie, following their new routine of pre-sleep and wakeup sex. Twice a day was enough, or so he told himself. The adrenaline crash and fear he’d felt had inflamed his libido, but he was a focused and disciplined sorcerer as well as a young man, and in control of himself.
Self-discipline and control were both important to his thinking, and he already felt addicted to sex with the love of his life. The building anticipation of the rest of the day would be kind of fun as well. Katie’s presence put her back in the library at that moment, which wasn’t a surprise. After last night’s craziness, he was almost sure she was struggling with the same desires he was.
Bria was fucking Lian again, and Sadie was preparing their lunch
He wasn’t sure what to do. He’d have visited a town himself or practiced his magic, but with the alien hunt he was down to fumes and didn’t want to draw from his stockpile of life force if he could prevent it. That was something he could start doing when the crisis was over, and they could create a normal daily routine of work, education, practice, play, and joint play.
He considered the idea of doing more research in the library himself, there were a few things he’d learned from Katie’s memory that he wouldn’t mind researching further. But, he already had about ten times his own spell knowledge to work on and perfect. Maybe it was foolish, but he wanted to perfect what he already knew to make it useful, before learning even more theory.
That would also take a lot of time, because Katie had studied non-stop for almost twenty years save martial arts and casting practice. It would take a long time for him to fully integrate, understand, and master the ten percent or so of the vast library he absorbed from her mind. He figured it’d be a decade, before he’d perfected it all and was ready to crack even one more book.
There was one thing he could do, besides sitting on his ass and relaxing all day, and he headed for Katie’s workshop. In a very real way, it was starting to feel like his home already, but it was Katie’s sanctuary and belonged to the bearer of the mantle. Still, it also felt like home, or Katie did at least.
There’d been a balance issue about twenty years ago, where a sorcerer had used magic enchantments to protect chemical and electrical processes from magic. He had no interest in doing that, not really, he was a product of the new world and thought it better and cleaner, it was all he knew. He didn’t want to make working cars and guns.
But… there was a reverse application to that which did appeal to him. More than that, though he’d thought he had a complete education growing up, he hadn’t really learned anything about the sciences which were pretty much defunct. Except, Katie had graduated from college with a four-year degree, and she’d done very well in AP science classes in high school. Since he read her, that meant he had a pretty solid grounding in the basics of those old sciences now, as well as magic.
Point being, an enchantment had to be jump started by magic, meaning it could only be activated about sixteen to thirty-two times a day by a sorcerer. But, as proven back then, an enchantment could be jump started by electricity as well, since electricity attracted and interacted with magic. The sorcerer back then had used enchantments as a magical drain, too keep it from interacting with the function of the electrical generation for a steady flow of voltage and amperage the old electronics needed.
So, what would happen if he built a coil and magnet inside a silver coated stainless steel tube, and then shook the tube vigorously to create some induction to electrify the coil. There’d been some flashlights like that in the old world, he now knew from Katie’s memory. Point being, activating that coil would draw in magic, and activate the enchantment. Which was his true goal in the idea. He didn’t give a shit about old tech, he wanted to be able to make an enchantment that didn’t depend on a magical jumpstart, but instead an electrical one.
An enchantment anyone would be able to use, sorcerer or not. There was some danger
in that. A deadly enchantment that could be used by anyone couldn’t be allowed. But he thought some things could be helpful that way. Clean water for whole communities, and heated water, and all sorts of things normal people had to do without in the new world or that took tremendous amounts of mundane effort to achieve.
It could also never be mass produced or repurposed, enchantments were unchangeable spells that were inscribed, and could only be inscribed and set by a sorcerer. So it wasn’t like some ambitious non-magical could reverse engineer the process.
It would also be a way for him to make money, selling convenience enchantments, to make the world a little better. No weapons, but quality of life things like heating and cooling, hot water heater without coal or wood burning stoves, cleansing the water without painstaking filter assembly, and perhaps even basic healing spells, the kinds that nature sorcerers were capable of anyway.
If his idea even worked. He also wouldn’t be making any deadly enchantments that way, not even for himself, in case it was ever lost or stolen. Sure, some might do good with them, and there were definitely some bad sorcerers out there as well. But mastery of sorcery took years of study, and a high amount of discipline and focus. Deadly power like that shouldn’t just be handed out randomly, it had to be earned to his way of thinking.
Just like for normal humans, accuracy with a bow and expertise with a sword took time and effort.
Not that he needed coin overly, he already had a bunch of it from taking out the trash over the last year, and he had no recurring expenses.
So, he spent the rest of the morning trying to build an induction activated light enchantment that would last about four hours per activation. It was more a proof of concept than anything he would ever sell, and completely harmless. After all, candles, lanterns, and torches did just fine to provide light after sunset to the masses.
In the end, it was even easier than he expected, though it took a few hours to build it and ten or so minutes to scribe the spell. He decided to discuss the idea with Katie before he went ahead with the idea, there might be pitfalls he hadn’t considered, and then headed for lunch…
Katie frowned when he got done explaining his thoughts and morning, “I’m of two minds about it. The knowledge could be dangerous once out there, suppression of knowledge isn’t the best thing, but there are possibilities for abuse. Say, if some smart enterprising person built an induction rod. If they shook it, then they could activate any other enchantment just by touching the rod to the activation rune on any other enchantment they managed to get their hands on. Enchantments that would’ve been worthless to them without that knowledge.
“With a simple induction rod, we could activate the charging for my staff or your bracelets, we could activate the enchantments we build to fight the aliens, or the molten steel bomber your mother has in the garage. It’s a worthy idea, but people have light, hot water, and other conveniences, they just have to work at it a little harder with ancient technologies.”
He sighed, “I hadn’t considered all that, jump starting other enchantments with an induction rod I mean.”
She nodded, “Also, they might not be able to make a true spell, but with enough magical buildup they could create horrifically powerful bombs with a catastrophic release of raw magic. It’s better if people never understand that possibility, and those inventions will get a lot of clever and ambitious people thinking, many of them assholes.”
He snorted, “You convinced me, no selling enchantments for me.”
Katie grinned, “I like the thoughts that led to it, your good intentions, but… sorry.”
He changed the subject, “So, what’d you get up to in the library.”
Katie tilted her head, “Studying, poorly.”
He laughed, “A little distracted, baby?”
Katie bit her lip, but she didn’t answer, which was answer enough, she was as preoccupied with her lust as he was with his.
She said, “I’ll try again this afternoon.”
Over the rest of lunch Katie peppered him and Sadie with questions about him and his past. Bria was still fucking as far as they knew. The dragons were a randy lot and Bria wouldn’t make it out for lunch. He wouldn’t be placing any bets on dinner either.
He might’ve known everything about Katie, but she still had a lot to learn about him. It wasn’t just their sex drives they were concentrating on, after all. They were building the meaningful base of a true relationship. He answered everything honestly, even if it was a little embarrassing or revealed a shallower aspect to his personality he wasn’t proud of. It was obvious to him that his sexy vixen goddess of pleasure and love wanted to know everything about him as well.
The affection and curiosity in her eyes were almost as powerful as her deferred lust. It was toward the end of lunch that she brought up that very subject which had only lightly been touched on earlier.
She said, “I do wonder about our… needy and fantastic sex life. It’s a bit more intense and crazier than just a fresh and new relationship would account for, I think. Even considering what you said before, not bugging me and also pushing all the right buttons. Life sorcerers do have the ability to influence someone within the parameters of their own predisposed makeup and emotions. The part of their personalities programmed into their DNA, rather than what’s informed by how they were raised. The nature part of them, rather than nurture. I wonder if you might be subconsciously doing that.
“Not that I’m complaining, or would be upset if you were on accident, I’m rather enjoying it a whole lot. It doesn’t change the important parts, what truly draws me to you and you to me, and it merely enhances our enjoyment of each other in bed.”
He asked curiously, “What makes you say that?”
She blushed, “You know I’ve always been a bit of a submissive in bed from my memories. I’m strong willed outside the bedroom, sometimes I think too much so, and that I can be too sensitive about it. But behind closed doors I want my man to be a man, and take what’s his, love me, cherish me, and take control.”
He nodded, since he did know that already.
She shrugged, “With you it’s that, but so much deeper as well. The need to surrender myself to you and your desires, to pleasure you in any way you desire or take, is stronger than I ever felt in the past. I think you might be enhancing or influencing me to surrender to that natural inclination fully. It’s more than not holding back, I’ve been aggressively giving it all to you in surrender, to an extent I’ve never fully let go like it before, nor so passionately.
“Almost like you’re stimulating that need in me, making me feel safe enough to let go of all my controls, worries, and fears, and then some. In short, I think with your influence I’m fulfilling the full potential of that need in me to submit and be taken.”
He grunted, “Maybe? If I am, I don’t know I’m doing it. I’m certainly not doing it right now, so doesn’t that mean your distraction is genuine?”
She shrugged and smiled, “Oh, it’s completely genuine, even if you are influencing me. Life sorcerers can only enhance what’s naturally there, or diminish it, they can’t make it up from whole cloth. But your question… I think it’s a lingering thing, not a temporary influence. It’s how I feel about you and need you, what I need from you. It’s not a transitory thing. It could’ve been done in the heat of sex, and still last.”
He nodded, “But you don’t mind?”
She snorted, “Hell no. Enhancing our sex life is a good thing as far as I’m concerned, if it’s even happening and not just you being perfect for me. The rest of it I have a clear head about, and it feels kind of normal like past relationships. Even if you are more perfect for me than any man before, it’s something that makes empirical sense in my mind.”
He grunted, “I imagine if I am, it’s because of my desire to bring you pleasure.”
She smirked, “Exactly, which is as I said why I’m not the least bit concerned about it, just curious about it. You’re not trying to control me. You j
ust… made me young, perfect, and able to fully enjoy sexual pleasure to my true and full potential. Objecting to that would be… stupid. But maybe that’s just my vanity and libido talking.”
He grinned, “Good to know.”
She sighed, “I really should talk to Cassie. I still have no idea how that conversation will go.”
He snorted, “She’ll be happy for both of us, I think. She really thinks highly of you. After all, my father is sixty, my mothers are all fifteen to twenty-five years younger, and they all look to be just a few years older than us, in their early twenties. Well, Lori, Sy’lia, and the twins still look our age actually. Point being, it’d be horribly hypocritical.”
She nodded but also sighed, “You’re her baby though, and humans are good at being hypocrites, but I’ll face the music for seducing and corrupting her perfect and innocent son this afternoon.”
He snickered, and even Sadie giggled.
She sighed, “I suppose I better get to it.”
The look she gave him told him she really wanted to be thrown over his shoulder and taken to the bedroom, or maybe just bent over right there and taken over the kitchen table, but he managed to stick to the plan of twice a day, barely.
Damn, she had a really nice ass.
Sadie was looking at him with pointed amusement, after Cassie had disappeared from view and he looked back.
He shrugged, “What’s your plan this afternoon, since my new two-hour old business is already defunct.”
Sadie grinned, “I actually need to give you my answer, but let me clean up quick. We’ll talk in my room, half hour?”
He nodded, his heart beating a bit faster as he looked into piercing green eyes. He wasn’t sure how he felt, but he knew he was nervous about hurting her or their relationship. Life was risk though, and it was his own damned idea.
“Should I put on something nicer?”
She smirked, “Stop digging for hints.”