They were gone. And his two men were… drowned. For the first time since this mission started, he was absolutely terrified. He hadn’t broken a sweat jumping down to the planet, or fighting humans, that had been fun, if a little frustrating as well. This was… what the hell kind of fucked up world was this?
If Tarrock had looked up at that moment, he might have seen the elven scout, staring down with a smile on his face. Generally, the elves didn’t get along with sprites, who weren’t exactly evil, but their mischief could go too far, but just this one time, he whole heartily approved.
Chapter 13 – Katie
Katie was happy. She still had bad moments, thinking about her father, what she had lost. But… overall she was happy. Even on occasion, joyous. She knew she was racing toward danger, even if she didn’t know what it was yet, but she found an intense sense of satisfaction living in the moment.
John was a part of that, maybe to an extent a big part. After their first night together, he managed to be even more attentive, not taking her for granted, yet at the same time, he wasn’t stifling or smothering about it. He was unobtrusive, but always there when she needed him. After that first night, the sex seemed to just get better, and she felt close to him. She wasn’t sure if she was in love, but she felt a lot for him.
Nim had grown into a close girlfriend as well. Goddess or no, she was closer to Nim than she had been to her friends in college, Nim was… the best. She’d been teaching her to use the staff, and she was gaining some confidence handling it. Oh, she knew she was still an amateur compared to a real warrior, but she no longer feared her own weapon, she knew how to handle it as an extension of her body, and no longer worried about accidentally hitting herself with the thing.
They’d been cleansing a farm together ever few days, and whenever they met up with other displaced people, she’d send them to one farm or another. Without the tractors it would be labor intensive to take in the crops, plus with everyone in the cities dead, they simply wouldn’t need every farm America had. That all gave her a sense of accomplishment, she was doing the best she could to help.
Those four things, John, Nim, fighting, and helping others all contributed to that sense of joy she felt inside. She was also getting used to the idea of sensing the balance, and the idea of helping to maintain it. Sure, she had free will and didn’t have to, but Merlin had chosen a descendent that would want to.
Nim also informed them that two elves, one a priestess, and an actual real dragon were coming to meet them, and help her on her journey. She knew they also wanted her to return to their forest home in the mountains once the balance issue was addressed, whatever that might be. So she was kind of jazzed about that. She’d never been into fantasy books, but she had to admit she was geeking about the idea of meeting a dragon. The elves too of course, but in her mind they were just humans with nature magic and pointy ears. She knew it was more than that but… she didn’t really know enough yet.
Nim rode alongside her and asked, “So have you been thinking about spells like I asked? One day, we’ll return to Merlin’s spot in the mountains, nearby the elves and you can learn some of his but…”
She nodded, “Yes, the shielding spell obviously. Hide? Kind of like invisibility. Disarm, which will make the opponent drop a weapon. Confusion, which will make it harder for an opponent to cast. Simple fire, water, earth, and air attacks, but I have to admit I’m less comfortable with those. I like the idea of defending, disarming, or stopping someone, but killing?” she squirmed in her saddle.
Nim sighed and smiled, “Merlin was often the same way. He stuck to advising, and protecting. He also failed, more than once. It is a hard thing though, killing will change you, even in self-defense. When you live as long as you will, or can, it isn’t that far a step between self-defense and judgment. It’s good your uncomfortable with it, just don’t let anyone kill us because of it.”
She thought about that, “Did you advise that I should kill if I think it necessary, or avoid it at all costs?”
Nim grinned, “Yes.”
She rolled her eyes, “Thanks Nim, you’re a big help,” she said sarcastically.
Nim giggled, “Anytime, but yes. Avoid it at all costs, except at the cost of your life or an innocent. If they can be stopped from killing, without sacrificing another life, you should do so. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should let a killer go either, otherwise you’d be guilty of the next person they killed, but you can turn them over to the wronged party, or someone in charge, for the dispensation of justice. Your mantle is balance, not punishment.”
She nodded, “That made more sense.”
Nim sighed and looked in her eyes, “You need to work on your vocabulary. All your spells are like the way a child speaks, one word at a time.”
She really wanted to take offense at that, but Nim’s face was too sincere and caring for her to muster the effort, and beyond that, the goddess was correct. She had been thinking up one word spells.
She sighed, “I’ve been thinking about fighting and defending. I haven’t’ thought of anything complicated I’d want to use magic for, after all I should only use it when I absolutely need to right? So what do you suggest?”
Nim shrugged, “How about one that disarms, binds, and ties. More complicated can mean less magic as well. If you cast fire, feed it air, and support it with earth, your fire attack will be stronger, and take less magic at the same time. Your general shield from everything spell, is powerful, but it also sucks up magic like crazy when it’s hit, as you found out in the tornado.
“A more difficult shield spell would work just as well but take less magic to maintain. The shield could bring up earth to defend from physical attack, or meet fire with water, or an opponent’s air attack with earth. Mind magic with dispelling qualities, and so on… That means a lot of words, all designed to lead your mind through all the concepts on what you want your shield to do, making it more efficient. Creating water to stop fire takes much less magic than that all-purpose shield will use.
“There are many other things, even travelling from one place to another in an instant, just use your imagination.”
She shook her head, “I have so much to learn.”
Nim chuckled, “I still have so much to learn, and I’m ancient.”
“Oh… thanks for the encouragement. Nothing like an everlasting task with an everlasting learning curve.”
Nim just laughed in bright humor at her sour comment, and she joined the woman after a moment. Nim was so easy going, it was really impossible to be mad at her for longer than a few moments. She was still attracted to the woman as well, but didn’t feel awkward about it, plus, she had John, so didn’t think it would go anywhere anyway.
She giggled, “At least I won’t get bored. Do you think I should speed up, are we wasting too much time helping these people? We’re only about halfway to Colorado, we could have been a lot closer.”
Nim frowned, “How do you feel about it, and are you sure that’s where we’re going, it could just be a coincidence we’re moving in that direction.”
Katie nodded, “I’m sure. As we move closer I can feel the difference. We’ve been moving about forty miles a day, Colorado is over six hundred miles from Oklahoma City, so… were still less than halfway there. I don’t know, it feels right to help, but am I risking the balance?”
Nim shook her head, “I can’t answer that, all I can say is for Merlin there was a measure of… urgency when the time grew nearer, or the situation grew worse. I’m not sure you’ll be able to judge that without some experience. How does it feel to you?”
She sighed, “Dangerous, but I don’t feel desperate to get there either. Whatever it is, it’s under control for the moment.”
Nim nodded, “Well we’ll be with Kurien, Arielle, and Brianthenia in a day or so, they are close. Arielle can ask the council if anything is going on up there that seems out of the ordinary.”
She smiled, “Thanks. That’s a good idea. I wish I could do that.
”
Nim winked outrageously, “You can, well, once you meet someone you can. John or I, you could communicate with us through magic if the need arises. So once you visit the Elven and Dragon council…”
She asked, “How?”
Nim shrugged, “Make up your own spell, I’ll go ride up with John for a while.”
She sighed as Nim cantered for a few moments and then slowed by John, everything was a lesson she needed to figure out, she needed to get over that though, because that wouldn’t change for… forever. She understood, if she didn’t figure out how to do things for herself, she’d be hopeless in a new situation if Nim wasn’t around to baby her through it, so it wasn’t a bad thing.
First, she closed her eyes, and examined the way the horse she was on felt in the magic, then looked at John, and then Nim. She tried to find a difference, obviously she would need to be able to focus on that difference. Magic was connected everywhere on Earth, so that would be the medium. She had to find their… phone number for lack of a better word.
She found the… feel of them, but when she considered memorizing it, she didn’t need to. She already had, subconsciously. Whenever she thought of Nim, or John, or that first suspicious farmer, the signature of their presence in the magic came to mind. She hadn’t even noticed she’d been doing it.
At first, she thought of manipulating air, create vibrations in the air to mimic her voice, and do the same for the person on the other end of the spell, for her. But that wouldn’t work, or it might work for the twenty-yard distance right here, but Colorado was four hundred miles away. Even though magic was everywhere, she was sure she couldn’t manipulate the elements from so far away. Her influence only stretched so far.
So what did that leave? Mind to mind contact? She was a little leery of the idea, it sounded like an invasion of privacy. But… that’s probably how it was done, maybe the spell just needed to be limited to sending information, and receiving only what was meant to be sent. In other words, no mind reading.
She also liked the idea of a kind of virtual reality illusion. The words and image would only be in the caster’s and receiver’s mind, but it wouldn’t be perceived that way. They would believe they were actually hearing her voice, and seeing her standing there in front of them, instead of some invading voice in their mind. So… she picked holographic for the illusion of the person’s physical presence, audio for the concept of sound, choice for if they would accept the spell, and lastly duplex so it was two-way communication.
She bet most sorcerers didn’t do it that way, because she was sure if she simply used the word telepathy it would work just fine for her test. She’d been practicing drawing a trickle of magic while fighting with a staff, so it took no effort at all while simply riding to commune with the magic and charge her staff. Hopefully this wouldn’t take much magic, and she could hold that charge for a while.
She also wanted to see if she could fool them.
She cast the spell while suppressing an evil giggle, including her horse and the sound of hoofs, and kept silent as the horse with her on it hopefully had appeared next to them. She couldn’t see it, what she saw was their illusions in front of her, so it was half working. She saw John do a double take, as if she’d snuck up on him.
She said, “Hi guys, what’s up?”
John shook his head, “Nim said you were working on a spell, having trouble?”
Ooh, one down.
“I don’t know, Nim?”
Nim looked at her and raised an eyebrow, “You don’t think you can fool me do you?”
She giggled, “It was worth a try, how do you like my spell?”
Nim grinned, “I like it, a lot more complicated than I expected, which is all to the good.”
John asked, “What spell?”
She laughed, “Turn around.”
When John looked back she waved at him with a grin, and then ended the spell. It hadn’t taken all that much energy, the pictures and illusions were only in the targets mind. She had just targeted both of them at once. She picked up the pace until she caught up.
John said dubiously, “That… was kind of cool, I had no idea it wasn’t you.”
Nim nodded, “Anyone with magic would have known their mind was contacted. Still, I like it, it seemed less invasive, and gives you the feeling of being face to face with the person.”
She grinned, “That’s why I did it that way, I thought of simple telepathy but…”
They came around the bend, and there was a road block, and what looked like soldiers, they were all in Army uniforms. There were three by the saw horses, and maybe ten or so farther back. Of course, most of them had military type sabers that looked somewhat authentic, not that she was an expert. Crap. She did think it was a bit odd. Why a roadblock, when cars don’t work?
John said, “Damnit, this is why I’m supposed to be ahead of you guys, they’ve seen all three of us, let’s hope they don’t want to cause trouble.”
She murmured, “Take it easy, we’ll be fine.”
He glared at her, but she let it pass, for now.
“Halt,” one of the soldiers said and they all pulled up on their reigns.
“What’s this about,” John asked pointedly.
She frowned, he really had a stick up his ass about something.
“We are here to check people out as they pass. The governor activated those of us on duty personally sir, to put down looters. Most honest folk stay at home, so we set up checkpoints around the state in likely travel areas for such groups…”
Another soldier interrupted him, “Geez Franks, why don’t you take them to the command tent, point out all the checkpoints for her, or I don’t know, perhaps draw her a copy? You know, just in case the man with the sword and his two women need to know.”
Franks blushed, “Fuck you Hernandez.”
Hernandez shook his head, “Which bring us to our point, as Franks so patiently explained. Who are you, why are you travelling.”
She smiled tentatively which drew their attention to her, “We’re mostly concerned citizens, we’ve been travelling and getting groups together to work farms, to make sure there’s some food this winter, and enough people to bring in the crop without tractors. I also have some business over in Colorado.”
He looked at her in disbelief, sadly enough she understood the look. She was twenty and an attractive woman, not the most likely of people to be leading others.
Franks asked, “You don’t say, and these people… listen to you?”
She nodded, “Most people are just scared, I know I’m young, but grouping people in small farming communities just makes a lot of sense, until pre-technological infrastructure can be put into place, the people need to be near the food, at least here in the bread basket they do.
“It’s not my true purpose, like I said, I’m travelling to Colorado with my two friends, I’m just trying to help out on the way. I grew up on a farm, I know how important it is, and the idea of all those people starving, well, you can understand right? It’s not that big an effort. Seemed like the right thing to do, since as I passed them I already knew where the active farms were.”
She figured she’d leave the sorceress, goddess, and man with the magic sword part out, since she didn’t want to be locked up. Although maybe they’d already heard about magic being real, but she didn’t want to risk it.
Hernandez raised an eyebrow, “Right, so why Colorado?”
She shrugged, “I have people I need to meet there, sure it’s inconvenient, but its personal business. The three of us by ourselves… you think it’s likely we are raiders?”
Franks shook his head no, but Hernandez grimaced, “You could be scouts for the main force.”
John laughed, which pissed off Franks.
“What’s so funny?”
John shrugged, “Looters aren’t that smart. Sure, maybe later, when a few have been pinched they’ll pick up on it and send out recon, but right now they have no reason to be cautious, you just got here
right? Besides, we’re not, and we all know we can’t prove a negative, so what now?”
She heard a loud pained scream.
“What was that?”
Hernandez shook his head and rolled his eyes, “Damn butter bar L.T. broke his damn leg. Course, we ain’t got no medicines, or a way to get him medical aide. We have a medic, he’s doing the best he can with it.”
She dismounted, “Let me take a look at it. You guys know about magic right?” she asked nonchalantly, pretending it was common knowledge.
She wasn’t sure if this was the wisest course, but that scream had been horrific.
Franks, Hernandez, and the other guy took a step back and looked at her oddly.
“What, you don’t think two young attractive women and one man with a sword are going to travel with all the raping and pillaging going on without skills do you?”
Franks snorted a laugh. Hernandez looked at her like she was the devil come to life.
John rolled his eyes, “Why’d you do that.”
She frowned, “Because I can help,” she looked at Franks with a smile, “How about it, want to escort us back there? Then we’ll continue on after, places to be and all that.”
Hernandez said in horror, “She’s a Bruja!”
The third guy slapped him in the back of the head, “Shut the fuck up Hernandez. Go ahead Franks, either we get an in shape L.T., or she’s a nutcase, in which case she can go on her way until she gets her stupid ass killed,” he turned to her, “No offense ma’am. And may I say, you’re lookin mighty fine this afternoon.”
Emergence: Return of Magic book 1 Page 9