Emergence: Return of Magic book 1

by Rosier, D. R.

  The fight was short and brutal, his people were so much stronger, taller, and had four arms. Plus, the humans had been outnumbered by over twenty to one.

  He growled, “Pick up the weapons, Dicks is ours. And make sure you let one live, I need to question it.”

  They raced inside the sporting goods store and quickly overwhelmed any resistance. He took his time when it was all done, and picked out a bow, some steel head arrows, and a couple of machetes for his lower limbs to wield. He figured with a little practice he could fight short range and long at the same time.

  They also gathered the low tech survival gear they would need for the days ahead.

  When he was satisfied he had what he needed, he questioned the human Garrock had brought to him.

  “Where is the field that prevents technology?”

  The human’s eyes widened, and he could smell something unpleasant. He growled out the question again.

  The man said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He growled, and backhanded him, the human made a satisfying noise of pain.

  Garrock said, “Sir, perhaps this will help.”

  He turned and looked, there was a map of the land. They discovered quickly they were near a city called Portland in a state called Oregon. According to his science officer, he believed the source of the unknown energy field was to the south east, in the Colorado mountains. He was still angry, the place called Colorado was a huge area, and had plenty of mountains. They could walk around them for years and never find it.

  Even worse, he had a feeling it was in a hidden base, so they could walk right over it without ever knowing. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to be common knowledge to the locals. He wasn’t sure what to do, he knew he’d do anything for a damned working scanner, but that wouldn’t happen. They would just have to question all the humans they found in the area, one of the vermin had to know the answer. Of course, they needed to get there first.

  He grabbed the human by the throat and squeezed. The vermin turned blue and then the light went out of its eyes.

  He felt… better. He tossed the body on the floor, grabbed his new gear. He shook his head at the primitiveness of it all, but it was better than nothing...

  Chapter 9 – Katie

  She moaned softly as he pushed against her flesh. She felt her muscles tighten, and then loosen under his firm touch. It felt incredible.

  “Like that Katie?”

  She blushed as John’s hands kneaded the knots out of her back, “That’s perfect, I thought I was in better shape than that.”

  He chuckled, “I imagine fighting with a staff uses different muscle groups than working a farm.”

  She sighed, “You can stop doing that… tomorrow maybe.”

  He laughed and moved his hands lower. She couldn’t help but wonder how good it would feel directly against her skin. She wanted him, but was worried it was all too fast. So far, he’d been wonderful and hadn’t pushed for anything physical between them, outside Nim drilling them on basic fighting techniques when they’d stopped to camp last night that is.

  When she’d woken up this morning, her back was in knots, and her arms felt like spaghetti. When John had offered to help her with a massage, she couldn’t say no. She knew they had to leave soon, they were burning daylight. She sighed.

  She still hadn’t been able to pull on the magic. She’d tried to open herself to it, but it just continued to eddy around her, like she was a rock in a stream. She could feel the magic moving all around her, but she could no more soak it up, than a rock could absorb the water flowing around it.

  She knew she should tell him to stop, her body felt like putty under his strong hands. She was also aware she wasn’t the only one turned on, he was straddling her as he massaged her back, and she could feel him hardening against her. Her body wanted to flex, and push up against it, but she closed her eyes, and relaxed her body to simply enjoy the feeling of being under him for another few moments.

  She knew she was torturing them both, she either needed to signal him to move forward, which was very tempting, or move on for the day.

  She said reluctantly, “We should get moving.”

  He didn’t complain, he just softly caressed her back one more time, and ran his hands through her hair and stood up.

  A part of her was disappointed he didn’t make a pass anyway.

  She said, “I’ll be out in a moment.”

  When he left she grabbed the staff and closed her eyes. She felt self-conscious about another idea she had, but she wanted to try it. It just felt… weird. She’d never been a religious person, and of course, Gaea hadn’t been the god she’d grown up hearing about. Gaea was just a myth after all.

  Except… clearly not.

  She took in a deep breath and let it out, and then lowered her head and prayed… sort of.

  She didn’t say anything out loud, she tried to commune with Gaea in the depths of her mind. In a way, the Earth itself, and all that it was is the goddess, or at least, that was how she saw it based on her conversations with Nim. She didn’t try to open herself to the magic, or at least, not just that. She also reached out and invited it, her mind filled with reverence, as if the magic was more than just magic.

  But a part of the goddess herself.

  She almost lost a hold of it in her surprise, when the magic answered her call. Not a taking, but a joining, she felt it start to fill her and tried to accept it as slowly as she could, and focus on the staff and channel the magic into it.

  If a trickle was entering her, the magic that started entering the staff was deluge.

  She felt… incredibly good. She knew that was a lie though, the magic would harm her if she tried to pull too much. Now… she didn’t know what to do with it. She thought of a few things, but really, she was fine. If a little sticky from sweat.

  She grinned and wondered if it would work, “Clean,” she murmured, as she focused on what it felt like to be clean, shaved, with her hair brushed out.

  The magic in the staff trickled out, and she felt fresh. She opened her eyes and looked down, and then ran her hands through her hair, there were no knots, and it was silky soft. She felt… like she’d just gotten ready for a night out sans makeup. The problem was the staff was still holding plenty of magic, it had taken barely a trickle to make it happen. Did she have to use it?

  She stood and left the tent, Nim was eyeing her curiously, and she noticed the goddess looked quite clean and fresh as well. Interesting. Well, vanity seemed like as good a reason as any to use magic. It used so little magic she doubted it would have an impact.

  “Can I leave what’s in there in there?”

  Nim’s sounded relaxed, “Yes, and you should. The best thing to do is only use your magic to charge the staff, until you use what’s in there, you won’t have to channel magic as well, you can use the residual magic in yourself to simply make a connection to the staff and pass the spell. May I ask how you connected to the magic?”

  She nodded, and explained what she did, and Nim’s smile seemed to grow brighter at the telling.

  She asked, being curious at her new friend’s reaction, “Is that significant in some way?”

  Nim nodded, “Most sorcerers, or sorceresses, do reach out and take it. It can be done that way. The reason you failed at it is the path of force did not appeal to you. I know you have steal in you, but you don’t like to force things to your will. I find that a good thing.”

  They broke up camp after a small breakfast, she knew they would have to hunt soon. It was a weird thought, but no more grocery stores. They also only had a limited amount of feed for the horses, something else they would have to deal with.

  She slowly got more and more depressed during the day, as she passed by farms that seemed abandoned, the crops dying in the ground as they were slowly poisoned by the alien weapons. She knew even without technology, that local farms would be necessary to the small surrounding communities, and she wondered how many more would die o
f starvation when winter came around.

  She understood already, the world had moved from technology back to magic, a new paradigm necessary for their survival. She was supposed to influence the balance, somehow find a way to get humanity to at least tolerate their new neighbors. It was important, but so was farming, and eating. If they were going to survive, they needed farmers, and a lot more farm hands, because large machines wouldn’t work anymore.

  People in the suburb areas would need to get back to their roots, the large corporate farms would need to be split up, made more manageable for a family to run. She knew it would take time, but all these abandoned farms with dying crops would make it worse. She wasn’t responsible for everything, but she still felt the weight of all those she knew would die.

  She talked with Nim and John about it, but there would be no easy solutions. Humans had gotten too used to technology, it would take time to relearn how to go without. And although magic would help with some of that, not that many people had magic, whereas everyone had been able to use technology.

  She slowed as she felt people on the next farm. The first people she’d felt all day through the magic. It was still early afternoon, and there were maybe fifteen people gathered in front of the farm house. It was a large place, and as they got closer, she started to hear the argument.

  It was about food of course, the owner couldn’t continue to feed all of them, the fields were poisoned, but the farm hands had nowhere else to go. On a whim she turned her horse onto the driveway and started towards them.

  John asked, “What are you doing?”

  She frowned, “We have to help if we can, I’ve been thinking about the radiation, or whatever the aliens used. I think I might be able to… cleanse it with magic. We’ll all starve if we don’t do something.”

  He didn’t look thrilled at the idea, and took the lead.

  She understood his worry, the farmers looked… angry. She didn’t think it would take much to turn them into a mob, people were scared. She knew she couldn’t help everyone, but surely she could help some of them during their journey?

  The owner turned to them and grimaced, “What do you want, I can’t spare anything.”

  She nodded slowly drawing his attention, “If I cleanse your fields of the radiation, can you spare us water to fill our containers, and some feed?”

  He laughed darkly, “Sure love, you’ve got a deal,” he said sarcastically as he stared her up and down quite deliberately.

  She didn’t blush or back down from his leering eyes. She’d been to college after all, and spent many a night at a bar, she was used to some men… lesser men, looking at her that way, as if she was just a pretty piece of ass. She wasn’t even angry about it, the man looked stressed. Plus, she knew she was attractive, as long as they didn’t touch, she just tended to ignore it.

  She pointed the staff at the fields. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt like death and decay to the magic, so she settled her intent to wash that away, cleanse it, and muttered under her breath so no one would hear her, “Cleanse.”

  The staff, which radiated a large amount of magic, pulsed at the end, and a light flashed across the field. The staff, once again was close to drained, it had taken a lot of magic to accomplish what she’d wanted. She couldn’t feel the taint anymore though, and felt a flush of success as the field was full of life again, and the crop should recover fully.

  She turned to him and raised an eyebrow, with an expectant look on her face.

  The owner narrowed his eyes, “It don’t look no different, you trying to con me with a danged light show?”

  She almost laughed. Right, of course they didn’t believe in magic, they probably had no clue what she’d just done. It was amazing how quickly she’d gotten used to the idea, but she was a loss at what to tell them.

  Nim cleared her throat, “The field will recover, she removed the taint.”

  One of the farm hands scowled, “This a joke to you kids? We’re dying out here. I suggest you just leave, before we all teach you a lesson.”

  Nim scowled but John spoke, “I’m not sure I’d believe it either if I hadn’t seen what I’ve seen the last couple of days. They don’t know magic is back, or even that it ever existed.”

  A few more scowled at that, magic?

  Nim’s face softened and she dismounted and walked away, toward the field. She blushed when her eyes locked on Nim’s swaying hips, and she looked up. Nim walked out into the field, and then… she started to dance. It was a sensuous flowing sort of dance and this time she couldn’t tear her eyes off the beauty of it.

  At first very little happened, then a watery mist seemed to flow out of the wake of Nim’s steps, wherever it touched, the crops visibly perked, and lost their gray appearance. Nim twirled and spun, then stepped up, and continued her dance in the air, the mist grew, and spread out over the field further, the higher the goddess danced.

  She smiled when Nim gracefully dropped to the ground, and walked back in a challenging strut that drew every man’s eyes, and hers as well. Nim looked at her and winked.

  “Feed, and water,” she demanded in a soft voice.

  Half the hands took a step back and looked afraid, the others were awed. The owner sent a couple of hands to get the feed and fill their empty water containers with a few short words.

  Nim said softly, “I can’t do that every day.”

  She shook her head, “I don’t think I can either. That was beautiful by the way Nim.”

  Nim just smiled in reply.

  The owner still looked suspicious, now because of the magic no doubt, but he was… much more respectful until they rode away. At least there would be people around here that wouldn’t starve, of course, the fields would have to be processed by hand. She knew she would do this as often as she safely could, what good was the balance if everyone died?

  Sure, they could replant in different ground, but it was midsummer, a crop this late would be chancy. This first winter would be the hardest, the humans left would race for the plains in order to survive next spring. Maybe the Elves or Dragons could help somehow? If the humans could come to terms with it, and let them that is.

  They travelled for a few more hours before stopping for the night. Instead of making a camp, they decided to make use of one of the abandoned farm houses. They were even able to put the horses in a barn. She felt a little uncomfortable at first, no electricity, strange house, but they were able to find some candles before dark, and even found some canned foods to throw a stew together, which ironically needed to be cooked outside over a fire.

  John was very attentive, and seemed content to not cross any intimate lines. Yet, she caught him giving her glances of desire from time to time. She actually got frustrated for a few minutes, wondering why he was holding back.

  Then she realized, she was the one holding back. He’d already about told her he’d be with her forever, and planned to. It had been her that held back and didn’t tell him the entirety of how she felt. The last couple of days had been very confusing. He was waiting for her to make her choice, as he had already made his. All she had to do was send the right signal… or maybe simply drag him into one of the bedrooms.

  She thought about what it really meant to be without technology. A country as large as the U.S. couldn’t function, at least not the same. Lack of communication would be a huge issue, although perhaps some would be able to communicate via magic. She didn’t know. She could picture all different types of scenarios happening across the country. Some people would set up fiefdoms, and control their people, others would build farming communities. Without infrastructure, large cities would be impossible to support, even if she could cleanse an area that large.

  Others would form bands to raid those communities, being too lazy to break ground and grow their own food. Maybe some of these issues could be settled by the elves, society had been present before technology as well, she knew they would just have to relearn it. Lives would no longer be dependent on a government p
rogram, people would need to learn to depend on their neighbors and community again.

  In a way, it would be like the old west… but without even guns and trains. Although… coal burning trains might still work, and some older technologies that depended more on natural occurring components.

  Nim trained her and John some more, all the while she was supposed to connect to the magic, commune with it, so she’d be able to do so anywhere or anytime, under any circumstances or distractions. She wouldn’t be able to close her eyes in a battle, or call a time out to recharge her staff. Her and John’s training was almost opposite though. She was learning to back away, parry or avoid a blow to give her time to access her magic. John on the other hand, was being taught to fight offensively with his sword.

  Her shoulders and arms ached by the time they called it a night, and ate dinner.

  Right after dinner, Nim got up and kissed John and then her, on the lips. She felt a strange sort of peace settle around her.

  “Good night,” Nim said in a soft voice, and they both watched her leave.

  Suddenly alone with John, she felt a little shy suddenly, and her mouth was a bit dry. There was no doubt in her mind what she wanted, and it didn’t help that she could still taste Nim’s lips on hers.

  John got up, “I guess we should all turn in.”

  She stood and nodded, and stepped around the table closing the distance. She stood close, well inside his personal space, and looked up into his eyes. She reached out and touched his chest with her hands flat. Her heart raced when he bent his head down, and she went up on her toes to meet him halfway.

  She sighed in pleasure as she kissed him for the first time. She felt warm, and a stirring tingle between her legs as she slightly parted her lips. As she’d hoped, he deepened the kiss. When they broke apart he had a question in his eyes.

  “Are you sure? I know a lot has…”

  He cut off when she covered his lips with a finger and whispered, “Sleep with me tonight.”