by Pam Uphoff
The Auld Wulf sat in the corner talking with Harry and keeping a benevolent eye on the group from sort of out of earshot.
"I'm going to King's University in Karista, starting in three days." Quicksilver brought Flare up to date. "I'll be staying with Great Grand Rufi, which is going to be interesting. If all else fails, I have Logic and the Karista Bay pyramid to fall back on."
"If you get that desperate, let me know, Sis." Xen grinned when she stuck her tongue out at him. "Hey, I can help. Besides, the way they were running around here about four months ago, half of the Karista Bay witches ought to be, umm, how do we put it delicately . . . preparing to advance to the Half Moon."
"Harry didn't have an orgy, did he?"
"Nah. Much too tame to qualify, just a lot of trotting back and forth between bedrooms."
They all giggled.
"Is that why they're building that house in Ash? Paying lip service to Karista High Society?" Walnut sniffed. "I don't see why we should."
Taupe nodded. "Azure and Beige are twenty, after all. It's about time some of them started advancing." She turned and looked Xen up and down. "We'll be doing the same pretty soon."
"You're all fifteen. Way too young." Xen informed them. "Anyhow I can outrun you lot."
"Ah, but we can surround you." Ultramarine slipped behind him and reached forward and grabbed thin air. "Ooo. I think this is going to be a challenge."
Flare blinked. She knew Xen was a wizard, and probably powerful, but traveling? Her stepdad Richie, the God of Eternal Youth, could Travel. Lord Havi and Lady Ask couldn't. In fact, Lady Rustle was the only person, other than gods, she knew who could travel and they were thousands of years old. And Xen was doing it as a party trick at twenty-one? Is it because he's the son of a god? Old Gods help us all if my nuisance brothers—all seven of them—learn how.
***
Quicksilver felt a little silly, being announced in a very loud voice as Lady Quicksilver Oldham on the arm of her great grandfather. He had tons of titles both before and after his name, and they reeled them all off. Pretty silly. They could have just said "Rufi" and everyone in the whole country would have known who they meant.
And properly, as a witch, she ought to have used "Rustledaut" for her family name, not Dad's from before the exile. Or Wolfson, like Xen, so everyone knew they were related.
Civilization is creeping up on us, and trying to pin us down with inflexible names. Next we'll be getting numbers. But apparently Dad's memory of old details, like his name, was improving, and the Great Grand had suggested reinforcing that. Wolfgang Oldham, and for fourteen centuries, all he remembered was "Old" and "Wolf." And not that he isn't a magnificent god . . . but after what they did to their most powerful creations, the Earth better watch its step!
The Great Grand escorted her over to introduce her to their rather stodgy hosts and their son and daughter, and the daughter's fiancé. Then several young officers, at which point Xen popped up and took over.
"After all, I have to make sure you don't meet the bunch of rotters I run with. You might tell Mom. I'm afraid Dad already knows."
She chuckled, and eyed the beautiful gowns on display. She thought hers was quite ridiculously detailed and layered and the skirts absolutely improbable. "Good grief, some of the women even put glamours on their dresses."
Xen followed her glance. "Your fellow witches. I suppose you don't see much of the Karista Bay Pyramid. About half of them are preggers, and trying to not raise too many eyebrows."
"Must be hell trying to fit in here. I mean, they have to pay some respect to local custom, but still let everyone know they're powerful."
"Come dance with me. I'll introduce you around."
"Oooo! Dancing with my brother! The thrill!"
They grinned at each other and Quicksilver let him dance her across the ballroom floor. He introduced her to multiple officers and gentlemen and then danced her over to the Karista witches, where he abandoned her.
She smiled at them. "You lucky dogs. I'm going to be attending university for at least four years before I'll have the time to advance."
A couple of the young ones, without glamours, nodded agreement.
"And, look at what we have to fend off in the meantime." The purple clad Heliotrope looked glum. "All these men look so flat."
Quicksilver blinked and surveyed the room. "Umm, yeah, I see what you mean. I guess growing up in Ash and Rip I just never was around enough plebes to notice that all the flat ones have no magic. Well, no power genes. Some of them have that low glow that means they have a bunch of the other magic genes."
Heliotrope sighed. "But pretty dim compared to wizards and mages. And then your brother shields his glow so strongly that if we hadn't caught some incredibly bright flashes we'd have believed all the gossip about him. And he dodges us."
"So, you're the next of the royal bastards to try and impress high society?" A loud masculine voice trumpeted behind her.
Quicksilver turned and looked the man over. "Actually I'm attending University, and won't be doing very many parties."
"Oh, yeah, I've heard your mother was too good to bother with nobles too."
The local noise level dropped a bit as people turned to look and listen.
Quicksilver frowned. The man was old enough to have met Rustle, back then. "She is still too good, if you're an example of it."
"Well, they showed her, didn't they?"
"Err, I'm not at all sure what you are referring to." Quicksilver searched her memory.
"What, she didn't tell you she was raped? That your big brother is some scorned noble's son?"
Quicksilver looked at him in bafflement. "I'm sorry, but the only rape I've heard about involved eight men attacking a sixteen year old girl—and her killing two of them, seriously injuring four others and the last two fleeing in fear of their lives. What does this 'show' other than that some nobles can be cowardly gang rapists and damn poor fighters, to boot?"
There were some twitters from the listeners.
"She was raped."
"So what? Good grief, do you really think a witch can't deal with that?"
The bulky young man was getting red.
"She was raped."
"Umm, I suppose your kept women would consider their value reduced thereby. Doesn't work that way with witches."
Many backs stiffened over that. Half of them weren't even pretending to not be listening.
"So you wouldn't care if you were raped?"
"Of course I would care, and I'd kill the rapist if possible. But really, what's the difference between that, and, oh, eight men, bigger and physically stronger than you ganging up on you and, oh, breaking your leg, say. Would your value be lowered?"
"But, but, rape is different."
"Well, yes. It has reproductive consequences, and of course a gang rape, well you have to figure the men are homosexuals, watching each other have sex and getting excited by it. Don't you think?"
He choked faintly.
"Actually, I have it all backwards, don't I? If you with your broken leg fought the men off, killing two, injuring four and two of them fleeing for their lives, why, you'd be quite the hero. So perhaps your value on the marriage market would increase. You're just having trouble adjusting to the thought of a women being the hero." She told him kindly. "You aren't used to women who are powerful."
A tallish man worked his way through the crowd. "Lady Quicksilver? I believe this is our dance."
"Is it?" She took his extended hand and allowed herself to be danced away. "Thank you so much. I'm afraid my logical analysis of what is apparently an emotional issue was causing mutual bafflement. Who are you?"
"Lord Asti Througus. Xen sent me to extricate you. He said if he went he'd end up punching someone."
"How true." She grinned. "Men are so emotional, and have such poor control over their aggressive tendencies."
"Are you really a witch?"
"I suppose that depends on what definition you use, but generally sp
eaking, yes."
"Hmm. And you're a University student also? I'd like to talk to you about magic. We get a bit argumentative about it, usually between the Philosophy department and the Physics department."
"I probably can't tell you anything that Xen hasn't already . . . " she stopped at his surprised look.
"Xen? Well I know he said his mother is a witch, but I thought witches only had daughters, so I figured he was exaggerating. Playing along with Garit who's got hundreds of silly stories about magic."
She snickered. "Mother is a witch, and witches mostly have daughters. And Xen is being modest. He's a wizard." They'd crossed the ballroom and fetched up next to Xen as she spoke.
"Shhh! It's a big fat secret." Xen said. "Or at any rate it's not waved around in plain sight. Unlike the little witch here, who has no shame."
"Well, I heard all about the 'magic fireball' some people said you threw at the Cove Islanders. I . . . just figured you had a little power . . . They say everyone has a bit. Did you study magic? Err, academically?"
Quicksilver giggled. "You classified him as someone who could maybe light a candle? Chase bugs out of the orchard?"
Xen grinned. "Umm, I can probably light fires and chase fleas off my dogs. But I've also had sort of academic training. I've neglected it, lately."
Asti scowled at him. "You might have said something. I suspect you're still kidding, but I can't tell which way." He turned back to Quicksilver. "Would you mind talking to us? What classes are you taking?"
"Beginning chemistry, biology, math and history this quarter. Monday, my last class is over at two, and I'll have plenty of time to talk about magic and witches. It's history, in the Brinman building."
"I will meet you on the steps of Brinman at two." Lord Asti beamed.
And then the Great Grand was there to escort her home. She was much too young to stay late at a ball. Casting a glance around she saw the younger Karista Bay witches being chivvied off and other young women around the room making their farewells as well. Somehow she doubted it was going to turn into an orgy after the kiddies were put to bed, but the kiddies were going night night anyway. City people were very strange.
***
Quicksilver chuckled at the reception committee.
"You all look hungry. Perhaps we should talk over food."
"Sorry, my dear, we so seldom get our hands on a prime specimen of witch . . . " One of the older men twinkled at her.
"Either that or they come with an attached Hell Hound and the entire campus makes us stop asking them to come by."
Her turn to twinkle. "You know, my parents really didn't think a large city like Karista would adapt to the idea of a god, but Hell seems to have managed nicely."
"There's just something so convincing about him."
"The collective subconscious . . ."
"No! We agreed, we're not going to start with philosophy."
"We should start with definitions."
She cleared her throat. "Magic is a mental manipulation of the outside world. It does very few things that a person couldn't do otherwise. In order to do work, one must expend energy. Whether I move a rock by hand, or levitate it, I use energy and that energy has to come from somewhere.
"It can be through the use of internal energy, the metabolizing of the food I eat and the air I breath, or I can tap an outside energy source and apply it. The mental equivalent of fetching a lever, a horse and plow, or a pulley. The type of outside energy a magic user can tap is determined genetically.
"Earth, Wind, Water and Fire. The four elements of the ancients are a useful shorthand. But Earth is actually the use of energy from gravity, pervasive around us. Wind and Water are both thermal and kinetic energy. Condensing water gives off a lot of energy. Rainstorms are very useful that way. Wind is full of power. Fire taps the electromagnetic spectrum.
"So, for definitions, these are the ones that the magic users themselves use. Witches source from Earth. Mages source from Wind and Water. Wizards source from Fire.
"Once a magic user has the energy, the Power, we can all use it in the same way, but some things come easier to us, a natural aptitude, generally in the medium we source from.
"But what about gods?" the Twinkly Old Man asked. Drat, they'd skipped the introductions.
"And why are witches only female?"
"Let me talk genetics first. Have you all had enough biology to know that cells have chromosomes full of information about how to do things? That's true of the magic genes as well.
"There are two-hundred and eleven gene complexes that have to do with magic. One of them is the power source gene. There are three major alleles: three versions of the gene." She paused, but they were all nodding. "The witch and wizard genes occur on the X chromosome. The mage gene complex is on the Y chromosome.
"The Witch X also has an attached gene complex that causes their ovum to reject Y bearing sperm.
"So witches are almost always women. Mages are almost always male. Wizards can be either—but it's a recessive gene, so women have to have two copies for it to work.
"But an immune system is far from infallible, and can be manipulated. X-witch and Y-mage babies do get born, normal baby boys. And X-witch X-witch plus Y-mage babies are girls who generally grow up to have reproductive problems. All the old gods fall into those two groups. Now, at some point in history, they went through a mentally traumatic time, something that caused actual brain damage, and left them at the mercy of that collective subconscious you didn't want to bring up. They, umm, partially absorbed, internalized and are at the mercy of the collective Archetypes.
"You know that everything we are is controlled by a combination of our genes and our environment? The gods have been very strongly influenced by the mental environment.
"It says a lot about us as a whole that the God of War is also the God of Wine and Virility. The God of Peace is a totalitarian fanatic. Mercy is not merciful by any definition but her own blinkered and prejudiced one.
"Hmm, so with those definitions, what do you want to know?"
"You are a witch? Two copies of the witch X?"
"The X-witch is a strong dominant. Witches can have either one or two and be equally strong. In fact only the daughters of gods have two. Yes, I source from Earth—I am a witch." And my strange genetics are none of your business.
"Can you have X-witch and X-wizard in one person, or wizard and mage?"
"Yes. Until the Wizards of Scoone figured out that the male hormones interfered with the development of their magical powers, the wizards were just a little stronger than no-outside-power workers of magic. By castrating their sons, they became very powerful magic users. Until then they were disregarded as unimportant, so the ancient experiments that resulted in the gods didn't involve the Xz chromosome at all. Umm, the X-wizard chromosome, right?
"Now some of the strongest magic users have the combined X-witch X-wizard or X-wizard Y-mage genotype. We keep trying to find useful names to denote that, warlock or the generic magician, but nothing has stuck yet. We try especially hard to reject the terms god and goddess."
Asti looked thoughtfully at her, "What, umm, with the witches, we keep hearing about Crescent Moons and so forth. What is that?"
"A hierarchy of knowledge and power. Kindergarten. Elementary. Middle school. High school. University. Graduate school." She grinned at their expressions.
"New Moons are young women suspected of having magical talent. Generally because of their parentage, occasionally because of their subconscious magical use. They get academic instruction about what magic is, and memorize a ton of stuff they'll need later. They, we, do exercises in meditation and visualization. When the girls consciously learn to manipulate power, they advance to the level of the Crescent Moon. Now witches tend to increase in power in a stair step fashion. Wizards and mages are more of a ramp, but even they have some steep inclines here and there, generally the same ones as the Witches. Puberty. Loss of virginity gets the biggest giggles, of course. Pregnancy. Giv
ing birth. Seeing one's own child grasping power herself. Holding your first grandchild. Menopause.
"I think you can see why we women do it stairstep, and men more gradually. Simple physical differences between the genders." She grinned at them. "Another source of information you should be aware of is Doctor Weg Kasik, in the History Department. He's spent a lot of time with magicians of various sorts, and knows quite a lot . . . "
The twinkly man was sitting up indignantly. "Doctor Kasik actually believes in absurd things like shape-changing, dragons, and even the Black Goats of Scoone. Man's completely cracked. Says he's talked to the Tyrant Wizard Nihility."
Quicksilver started giggling helplessly. "Oh. Dear. I may have to get grandfather to come talk to you."
Chapter Sixteen
Spring Equinox 1391
City of Scoone, Scoone
". . . of Spies, these people are idiots."
Xen blinked down at the fat little man. Then carefully took in his own surroundings. He was in a dark balcony. Just the one other man here, muttering as he peered down at an ornate assembly room of some sort.
". . . cleanse the whole world of witches and wizards." A tall man stood before the tiers of seats, turning to address the woman at the podium. "We do not want a return to the reign of the Wizard Tyrants. We will not be made the playthings of Gods and Goddesses!"
At the podium, the woman leaped backwards, stumbled away from a bloom of light.
A small woman stepped out of the light. Golden skin, raven hair. Brilliant dark eyes emphasized by expert makeup. Gold jewelry, brightly colored silken robes. She was exquisite.
"You must not lump all magic users into a single category. And trying to kill them? Insane." Her voice was soft, carried through the cavernous room by acoustics or magic. "Better to use them."
"No! Kill them all!" Another man leaped to his feet and stepped out into the center of the room.
Cries of support from all over.
"Better you build a hospital than a war fleet." The woman raised her chin as she stepped out in front of the assembly.
"Kill her!"