“Take your time,” he says. “We aren’t going anywhere.”
James chuckles and gives him a grin. Closing his eyes, he again reaches his senses out to the storm clouds above. Using his magic, he tries to hold back the lightning from striking while at the same time causing the opposite polarity to increase at the void.
As the polarity increases, James can feel the static charge in the clouds fighting to form and strike. Finally unable to hold it off any longer, he lets it go.
Flash! Boom!
A mammoth explosion knocks Jiron and Brother Willim off their feet as the lightning strikes the void.
Sending his senses to the void, he sees that it has shrunk to half its original size while the pulses were nullified. Then, just as before, the pulses resume and it is again pushed back to its former size.
“Almost had it that time,” he says. Opening his eyes, he glances to where Jiron is returning to his feet. “You better stay down there,” he tells them. “The next time could be a little rocky.”
Seeing the warning in his eyes, Jiron nods and takes a seat next to Brother Willim. “Rocky he says,” Jiron mumbles to Brother Willim.
Ignoring them, James again closes his eyes and sends his senses up to the clouds. Working the same as before, he holds back the lightning for as long as he can then lets it go.
Flash! Boom!
Again the ground rolls from the impact. Not waiting to see what happens, he again begins to form the polarity to attract the lightning.
Flash! Boom!
Then again.
Flash! Boom!
Then one more time.
Flash! Boom!
Though deafened by the blasts, he sends his senses to the void and finds it all but closed. Then, the pulses once again begin to come and start pushing the void back. What is it going to take?
Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom!
Four more times he causes the lightning to strike the void in an attempt to keep the pulses from rematerializing and pushing the void wider. On the fourth strike, a spasming ripple runs through the grayness as the void finally closes.
Chapter Ten
Zyrn stands there in awe as the crack of thunder rolls over them from the massive bolt of lightning. There had been two lesser strikes before that one but neither had come close to the power of that last one.
“Such power,” says Bokka. Several of the other villagers with him nod in agreement.
They hold their breath for a moment longer before another two bolts flash from the clouds and strike the ground with massive cracks of thunder. Then a few seconds later, three more bolts arc from the clouds to strike the ground. The grayness begins to rapidly draw back toward the area where the lightning is striking, already it’s past the lines of swords Zyrn had set in the ground over the last few days.
“What’s it doing?” asks one of the villagers.
Shaking his head, Zyrn says, “I don’t know.”
Then four bolts strike from the clouds. This time, a spasming ripple courses from one side of the grayness to the other then back again. “That hurt it,” one villager says in satisfaction.
“Yes, but it isn’t gone yet,” observes Zyrn.
“It’s still there,” Jiron says.
“I can see that,” replies James a bit testily. He was sure that when the void closed, the grayness would die. But it still covers the barrier and he can detect minor pulses running through it. There is no longer a set point from which the pulses are now originating, rather they come from all over.
“It must be like a giant amoeba,” states James. When he sees the question about to be asked, he continues. “An amoeba is a single celled organism. As such, it could split off from its host and still survive.”
“Right,” nods Jiron still totally lost.
James sighs and shakes his head. What he wouldn’t give for someone to understand him. Most of the time when he tries to explain things all he gets is that lost look that says they have no idea what he’s talking about. Trying to make it so they can at least understand it a little he says, “In the broadest sense, consider it a worm.”
“Ah!” says Brother Willim. “I understand. Cut off from the main body, it still survives.”
“Something like that,” nods James. Moving to the edge of the barrier, he peers closely at the grayness. “Come here and look at it more closely,” he says, waving them over.
When Brother Willim and Jiron come over, Jiron says, “It seems to have the texture of sand.”
“Yes, it does,” agrees James. “When it came through, the first thing it must have come into contact with was the gray sand that remained after the explosion. And for whatever reason it took on that aspect.” He sees them not entirely following. “Ever heard of a chameleon? It’s a lizard that is able to change its color to match that of whatever environment it’s in.”
“Not by that name,” replies Brother Willim. “But there is this bug over in Cardri that they say does the same thing though I’ve never actually seen it.”
“Maybe this creature,” he says as he taps the side of the barrier, “lives on another plane, between the planes, whatever and when it moves to another takes on the aspects of that plane to better blend in and survive.”
Brother Willim nods, “I follow you.”
“That’s all well and good,” states Jiron, “but we are still faced with the problem of what to do with this ‘amoeba’ I think you called it.”
“You’re right of course,” he says as he moves back away from the barrier. He allows the winds and clouds to begin moving on their own, the strain of holding them was beginning to be too much to maintain.
Lightning is out. Though it did affect it, it didn’t do so to any great degree. Fire? Possibly but he’ll need a nearby source from which to draw upon and a tremendous amount of power.
“Wish Miko was here with us,” he abruptly states.
“What?” asks Brother Willim.
“Oh, just thinking the power of the Star would come in handy right about now,” he explains.
“You have an idea?” Jiron asks.
Nodding, he says, “Yes I do.” Pulling out his mirror, he glances to them and says, “First though, I need to send a message.”
Miko and the others have been keeping a constant eye on the grayness ever since the lightning bolts stopped and the cloud cover began to dissipate. They expected the grayness to die, go away, or something. But it remaining unchanged seemed to not bode well for James and the others.
“Could it have beaten them?” asks Scar.
“Would you shut up!” roars Stig. “It did not beat them.” He moves over to where Aleya is off by herself. “I’m sure they’re all right,” he tells them.
Looking up at him with a tear in her eye, she says, “I hope so. After losing everyone when the Empire took my home, I was afraid to latch onto someone else. I feared going through that again.”
He puts his arm comfortingly around her shoulders. She gives him a short laugh and says, “And look who I decided to latch onto. A man who always seems to be in the middle of whatever is going on, most of it life threatening. I must be out of my mind.”
“Jiron’s a good man,” assures Stig. “I know he cares for you. Besides, your heart will love who your heart will love. There’s not much you can do about it.”
“I suppose not,” she agrees.
“He and James have been in worse situations before and always managed to get out of them,” he says. “So relax. They’re probably just taking a moment to consider their options.”
“I hope so,” she says. She sits there with Stig for a minute before her eye catches sight of a dust devil swirling atop the ground not ten feet from where they sit. “Isn’t that odd,” she suddenly says.
“What?” Stig asks.
Pointing to the swirling dust devil she says, “It sits in one spot. I’ve never known one to do that before.”
“Either have I,” he replies. As they continue watching it, the f
eeling that something is odd about it grows stronger by the second. It’s not moving, not growing smaller or larger, it just continues to twirl.
Just then Miko comes to stand beside them, his attention too is fixed upon the dust devil. “Strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” he says.
All of a sudden, it moves in an erratic pattern then dissipates. Miko’s eyes widen when he sees upon the ground where the dust devil had just been, a design roughly similar to the Star of Morcyth.
Grabbing a stick off the ground, he moves over to it and writes ‘James?’ in the dirt. Then as if an invisible finger is writing in the dirt, letters form. B…u…i…l…d.”
“They’re alive!” Aleya exclaims.
“Hey!” Miko calls to the others. “You better get over here.”
Scar, Potbelly and the others come over quickly and watch as the letters continue to form.
Zyrn and those he’s with see the commotion and come over as well to find out what’s going on.
Letter by letter, the message appears in the dirt:
Build fire, then get far, far away!
“What do you suppose that means?” Reilin asks.
“Just what it says,” Miko replies. To the others he says, “Gather what material you can. We’re going to make a fire.” Then he bends over and uses his stick to write once more in the sand.
When James sees Miko write, ‘Ok’ in the sand, he relaxes. Getting what rest he can, he continues to watch Miko and the others in the mirror. They scramble about gathering what combustible items as can be found. Dead bushes, roots and a few sticks are all that’s readily available.
He watches as they pile those items together and then Scar kneels down beside it. Taking out his flint stone, he begins striking sparks then bends close to where a spark has fallen on a dried leaf and starts blowing softly across the red spark. After a moment a little bit of smoke appears, then a flame.
Once the fire has caught and doesn’t look as if it’s about to go out anytime soon, those who have horses mount while the others who are on foot begin moving away as fast as they can. James waits for them to put some distance between themselves and the fire before he begins.
Putting away his mirror, he looks to Jiron.
“Over the top magic again?” he says with a grin.
Returning the grin, he says “Something like that.” Brother Willim looks from one to the other wondering what they are talking about.
This time, he lies down on the ground before beginning. “Hope this works,” he says then closes his eyes. Sending out his senses, he first checks where the void had been and is happy to discover no evidence of it. Next he sends his senses over to the fire Scar had made to make sure it won’t go out anytime soon. Satisfied that it will last a sufficient amount of time, he begins.
Using the magic, he forms a second barrier that completely encompasses the creature. Not nearly as strong as the one he created to protect them from the grayness, just strong enough to keep the air within from passing to the outside. Never has he created something so massive. The creature must cover over six square miles radiating out in every direction. Just creating the barrier took longer than he anticipated. The hardest thing was checking the perimeter to make sure the barrier extended several inches past the creature so that not even the slightest part of it was outside the barrier.
Next, he works to remove everything from the air within the barrier but the oxygen molecules. A hard enough job to do when you aren’t trying to maintain two barriers at the same time, but with what he’s already doing, it’s incredibly difficult. Slowly, the concentration of oxygen within the barrier increases. At one point he allows additional air to seep in to augment the supply of oxygen.
Keeping an eye on the fire Scar built, he continues to intensify the concentration of oxygen. When the fire is on the verge of going out, he determines that he’s done all he’s going to be able to do with increasing the oxygen content within the barrier. He’s not entirely sure but the air within the large barrier has to be pretty close to almost pure oxygen.
In a voice tight with strain, he says, “Get ready.” Sweat is now beading down his face and his teeth are grit together in response to the great strain he’s under.
“For what,” Brother Willim asks.
Unable to respond, James puts as much magic as he can into the protective barrier surrounding them to strengthen it. Then, while maintaining both barriers, he extends the larger one to encompass the fire. And when the fire hits the almost pure oxygen within…
Ke-Pow!
…it ignites the oxygen in a massive fireball.
The blast hits the larger barrier with such force that he’s unable to maintain it. Letting it go, he puts everything he has into maintaining the protective one around them.
The grayness that covered their barrier is burnt away as fire completely consumes it. Even the ground beneath their barrier turns red as the heat from the blast melts it into a smoldering slag. James’ back is scorched, his hair begins to smoke as the heat from the blast enters through the barrier.
“James!” exclaims Jiron. The heat burning and scorching his flesh brings intense agony, then soothing comfort comes as the green glow surrounding Brother Willim moves to envelope him. Easing his pain and soothing his burns, Brother Willim works to protect them both against the heat of the fire. For James, Brother Willim is unable to offer much help, it takes all he can do just to protect him and Jiron.
The ground starts to settle down and the heat subsides as the fire begins to diminish. James continues to lay there in agony, trying with his last ounce of strength to hold onto the barrier. When at last he can no longer hold onto it, he releases his hold on the magic and passes out.
“My lord!” exclaims Shorty when the fire ignites the oxygen. Even as far away as they had managed to reach the heat could be felt, then the concussion wave hits and almost bowls them over. Rising into the air, a gigantic cloud of fire reaches to the sky.
“Nothing could have survived that,” breathes Scar.
When it’s observed that the flames are subsiding, Miko turns his horse back and says, “Let’s get back there. They may need us.” Kicking his horse in the sides, he leaps into a gallop as he flies back to the scene of the explosion. The others are soon racing to follow. Zyrn and the villagers follow at a slower pace as they are on foot.
The area where the shimmering gray area had been still shimmers under the summer sun. “The explosion didn’t do anything,” remarks Stig.
“They may be out there in need of help,” Aleya says. “We have to go to them.”
At the edge of the shimmering field, Miko comes to a halt. Heat still radiates toward him from the blast, in some areas the shimmering has made way for red, glowing areas that give off tremendous heat. To their right and left, it looks as if the blast radius had begun a few inches past where the gray area had been. Somehow James had managed to encompass it completely.
“We don’t dare enter until we know if it’s safe,” Miko says. He wants to use the Star to locate James and the others, but the memory of how the grayness reacted when James used his magic causes him to refrain.
“Then what should we do?” Shorty asks.
While they sit there in indecision, Zyrn and the rest of the villagers run to join them. Zyrn comes to stand at the edge of the shimmering area and looks out upon it. Something is different but he can’t quite put his finger on it. Then he concentrates on the fringe to see if it’s still advancing. After a full minute he fails to see any sign that it is.
He looks around the ground near him until he finds a medium sized stone. Picking it up, he turns to face the shimmering area. Cocking his arm back, he throws it. The rock arcs through the air and lands fifteen feet past the edge of the shimmering area.
Crack!
When the stone hits the shimmering area, the area shatters as the stone passes right through it. Cracks spider along its surface away from the impact point for several feet. That was as far from what he expected than any
thing he could have imagined.
Shorty bends over and hesitantly touches the edge of the grayness then pulls back his fingers quickly. When nothing happens, he touches it again. Running his fingers along its surface he says, “It’s glass.”
“What?” asks Potbelly, surprised at what Shorty said.
“It’s glass I tell you,” asserts Shorty. Standing up, he steps out upon the shimmering area and the surface cracks under the pressure.
“He did it!” cries Potbelly.
“We must go to them!” exclaims Aleya and makes to ride forward.
“Whoa there,” Stig says, grabbing her reins near the horse’s head and stopping her.
“But they may need us,” she says, about ready to ride over him if he doesn’t get out her way.
“Our boots will afford us protection against the glass,” he tells her. “But the horses’ hooves will get shredded.” When she glares at him, he adds, “We must walk.”
Realizing he’s not trying to stop her, only protecting her horse, she nods her head and dismounts. Taking her bow she makes to head into the shimmering area.
Stig quickly instructs Reilin to explain that they intend to go in search of their companions to Zyrn, and to wait here to keep an eye on their horses. Then he hurries after Scar, Shorty and Potbelly as they move to follow Aleya into the field of glass.
They are forced to step slowly as they make their way onto the glass surface. Each step shatters the sheet of glass covering the ground. “You could make a fortune off of this,” comments Shorty. “Delia would love this.”
“Yeah,” agrees Stig. “Come out here and carefully cut out sections and sell them, it would definitely bring a tidy sum.
Crack! Pop!
Ahead of them the glass shatters and they can see bands of heat radiating out of the newly formed opening.
Crack! Pop! Crack! Pop!
More openings form as the heat trapped beneath the sheet of glass finds an outlet. “This could get bad,” says Miko. Already, they feel the heat rising every time their feet break through the glass.
Crack! Pop! Crack! Pop!
Most of the heat eruptions are coming from further into the glass covered area, the area closest to the center of the blast.
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