by Tom Larcombe
He raised his artifact as the mental wall crumbled, and found himself unable to will his magic into it. He no longer had control of that part of himself. Despite his commands to it, his magic simply wouldn't respond, seeming to grow more and more distant as he tried.
What the hell? He managed to get something into me and took control of my magic? Michael thought. Well, my water magic at least, let me see...
Michael tried to tap his Earth Magic and felt it respond, if sluggishly. As it rose to his command, he felt his Water Magic surge closer and lost the grip on his Earth Magic
“That's it?” Michael said, trying to disconcert his opponent. “All you can control is a single one of my magics at a time?”
For a moment Michael's hand holding the artifact lifted, before he raised a mental block, trying desperately to retain control of his body. He slowly forced his hand back down to where the artifact pointed at where he thought the opposing Wizard was. Then his hand was his to control again, but when he reached for his magic, he couldn't get a grasp on it.
Michael started switching back and forth, first calling his Water Magic, then his Earth Magic. Each time he felt a magic slip away from him, he switched to the other. Slowly, he felt the Magics growing closer and closer. In the tiny span of time it took the opposing Wizard to seize Michael's magic each time he switched, the other magic surged towards him.
Finally, his Water Magic surged into his hand as the other wizard seized his Earth Magic. The artifact responded, spitting out a large ball bearing fast enough to disintegrate a glass bottle.
It wasn't the most accurate shot, but Michael thought it struck the body. He was much more certain when he suddenly had control of both his magics again.
Michael heard the impact as it hit the other wizard, then his Earth Magic flooded his body at the same time as his Water Magic was already there. The artifact responded by spitting out every last ball bearing it held, so close together that it looked like a solid bar of metal connecting Michael and the location he thought the opposing wizard was in.
With both his magics his to control again, he was sure the other wizard was at least unconscious, but Michael wanted to be certain he was dead.
I'd heard stories about body jumpers, but I always dismissed them. I'm not dismissing them any more. If that's what he was trying to do to me, he shouldn't be able to do it to anyone else if he's dead.
Michael waited, on guard, with his mental wall reconstructed. Less than a minute later, a body faded into view. It was riddled with holes like bullet wounds and now he was sure that the wizard was dead.
* * *
The silence was nearly overwhelming. Michael stood there, wondering where all the noise had gone, before turning around. Once around the edge of the boulder, he saw raiders fleeing back the way they'd come. They were panicked enough that their weapons were lying strewn across the ground where they'd dropped them when they routed.
Bodies on the ground showed that not all the raiders were able to leave. He saw nearly as many bodies as he did fleeing raiders. Bill and several of the defenders were standing in the trenches. The motion of their rifles coming up caught his attention when he moved into view, but then Bill called out an order and the rifles went back down.
Michael walked over to the trenches, still full of energy, but bone-tired at the same time. Bill's face held a look that was part satisfied and part sad. A glance into the trenches showed Michael why. At least four of the defenders lay on the floor of the trenches, unmoving.
Michael's gaze moved back to Bill's face. The older man simply gave a tired nod and opened his mouth to speak.
“Michael!”
The call rang out over the battlefield. This time Rynn hadn't bothered to try mind to mind contact.
Probably because she doesn't know if I'm still stuck fighting the wizard, he thought.
I'm here Rynn, what do you need? he thought to her.
He had problems contacting her, it seemed as though she were exhausted, without even enough energy left to communicate mind to mind.
Did she exhaust herself trying to save Andi? I saw her working with electricity, and that's not a skill that comes to her naturally.
Never mind, I'm on my way, he sent.
“Got to go Bill, one of the kids is badly hurt,” he said.
Bill shook his head.
“Go Michael, if you can help, do it. We lost too many as it is, losing a kid would be worse. God's grace go with you too.”
Michael jumped down into the trench and retrieved the partially discharged crystal, then raced for the cliff.
Normally, I wouldn't do this, but I need to get there fast.
He drew on the crystal again, filling his reserves, and when he reached the cliff, he leapt upwards. When his hands touched down on the stone, the portions in front of his fingertips become as soft as butter.
He drove his hands into the cliff over and over, climbing as quickly as he could. His feet found grips wherever they could, but his hands propelled him upwards at the speed of a fast walk. Two minutes later he topped the cliff and rolled onto his side. From this angle he could see Rynn and Eugene, but not Andi.
When he stood she was visible, lying on the ground between them. Her body was twitching and occasionally thrashing.
Neither Rynn nor Eugene is touching Andi, so at least her body is functioning again, even if it isn't doing so correctly.
“What's wrong?” he asked as Rynn looked over to him.
“I got her heart started again, but it isn't beating regularly. Her heartbeat is strained and irregular. She breathes in sharp choppy breaths and then stops for long periods. I don't know what's wrong.”
“How much electricity did you hit her with?”
“How did you know—”
“I saw it, but how much?” Michael asked urgently
“I don't know, as much as I could muster the last time because she didn't respond to less.”
Michael nodded.
“Remember Raymond?” Michael asked.
She looked confused for a moment, then stunned.
“You think it's like what happened to you?”
He nodded again.
“We need to ground her out, then do some physical manipulation to smooth everything out. At least that's my best guess.”
“We don't have a rig like the one Eugene made to drain it off you though,” she said.
“I'll be the conduit. I can drain it off, maybe put it in here,” Michael said, gesturing to the large crystal he'd brought with him.”
“Or this one,” Eugene added, drawing out a second crystal, nearly identical to the one Michael held.
“Put it on her bare skin,” Michael said, placing the one he carried on Andi.
Eugene followed suit. Michael placed his hands where they were in contact with both the crystals and Andi's skin.
“You two might want to back away, you definitely don't want to touch me while I'm doing this. It'll be bad enough for me, that would just make it worse.”
“Michael, wait,” Rynn said. “Are you going to be able to heal her after you do this or will it lay you out?”
“I don't know, but it needs to be done now. There's no time to argue.”
“Let me do it so you can heal her,” Rynn said.
Michael shook his head.
“Do you know energy flows and how to divert them?”
“No, but—“
Their argument was interrupted by a pained grunt from Eugene. Michael turned and saw that Eugene had ignored the two of them arguing and simply placed his hands where Michael had his before.
Eugene's hair was already standing on end, so Michael grabbed Rynn and pulled her back.
“Stupid kid,” Michael said.
Rynn sniffed.
“No, he heard you say it needed to be done as soon as possible, then we started arguing about who would do it, so he did. He does know energy flows, he designed the setup we drained the extra energy off of you with before, and he monitored it whi
le it worked.”
“Then he knows the theory, hopefully he can handle the practice of it.”
Within a minute, there was a blue-white haze around Eugene's hands and forearms.
“I take it back, he's a smart kid. He's keeping all that energy from going any farther into his body,” Michael said.
A minute later, Eugene lifted his hands, pressed them to the ground until the haze disappeared, smiled, and collapsed into a limp pile on the ground. Andi lay still on the ground, her breathing more regular than it had been before.
“I'm going to check and see what else I can do to help her,” Michael said.
“Thank you.”
He sank to a sitting position, fractured the tiniest segment of his awareness that he could and sent it into Andi's body.
Her muscles were all fully tensed and her organs seemed stressed. Michael moved through her body, giving it the equivalent of an internal massage using his power. He relaxed the tensed muscles, soothing them to the point where they were almost normal again. He eased the stress on her organs, smoothing out her autonomic functions to the point where they worked properly. Finally he started healing the burns left by Rynn's hands when she applied the electricity to restart Andi's heart.
All told Michael spent a good half hour inside of her and when he came out, he sprawled back on the ground.
“What did you do?” Rynn asked. “She already looks better.”
“The equivalent of a full massage and a month or two worth of physical therapy,” Michael replied. “Plus I started working on those burns. She'll hurt when she wakes up, there's nothing I can do about that, but if there's any lasting damage it will be minimal.”
“You look exhausted.”
“I am, slide one of those crystals over here and get the other one off of her. Maybe cover her up again too?”
Rynn handed one crystal to Michael and moved the other one to the ground. Then she rearranged Andi's clothing as best as she could.
Meanwhile Michael tried to restore his reserves from the crystal one more time. This time when he finished, there was barely a flicker of energy remaining in it.
Now that Andi was taken care of, Michael took a moment to check on Eugene.
“He just overdid it,” Michael said. “He channeled too much energy out of her. He'll be fine, except for an awe-inspiring headache when he wakes up. I'm going to leave that for him to suffer through. Maybe the two of them will learn something if they hurt for a few days because of what they did.”
Rynn looked conflicted for a moment, then her face settled into a stern look.
“I don't like it, but I think I actually agree with you here. They did exactly what we told them not to and endangered themselves as a result. They should probably have some consequences to suffer because of it.”
“Good, I'm glad you agree, because I want you to tell Cindy not to heal them if they ask. It'll be rough for her, even I feel the impulse to fix it when I feel someone hurting, but... We'll make an exception to that for the hand-shaped burn marks you left on her though. We'll heal those so they don't scar.”
She shook her head.
“You didn't used to be this hard, Michael.”
“Life does that to you sometimes. At least mine has. I'm not this way all the time, you've seen that. But sometimes...”
His voice trailed off as he thought about just how to complete the sentence. He didn't need to though since Bill's whistle carried all the way up here and it was being blown frantically.
“I've got to go see what Bill needs. Will you be okay with them?” he asked.
Rynn sighed, looked at the two kids sprawled on the ground, then nodded.
“I was never this responsible before either, so you're right. Life changes us. Go, see what he needs.”
“Don't worry about the raiders,” he said. “I got the wizard, most of the raiders are dead, and the rest are fleeing. Sorry, I hate to leave you with the kids like this, but I have to go.”
This time Michael took the slower way down, going to where the slope wasn't sheer and scrambling down. As a result it took him nearly ten minutes to get back to the trenches.
“Bill, I heard your whistle, what's up?”
Bill wore a worried look now.
“We had a second attack simultaneously with the first. Coming along the north road.”
“Where we had the other trenches? Good call on that.”
Bill shook his head.
“Yeah, it was the only other obvious attack route, but... Well, there were more casualties there and the messenger told me that your dad was involved in that fight. I don't know if the two things are related or not, he didn't say who was hurt, but I wanted to tell you.”
Dad's a veteran, he'd know how to keep himself safe. Surely he isn't one of the casualties, Michael told himself.
Despite his own reassurance, Michael quickly walked back to the house, or more accurately, to the garage. He stopped at the house just long enough to grab his Jeep keys.
He drove quickly on the empty streets, slowing only when he got close to where the trenches crossed the road. When they came into sight, he saw another truck with a bunch of metal parts attached to the front. This one was stopped in the road, a hundred feet or more back from the trench.
He looked around quickly, searching for his father. When he saw the familiar figure off the side of the road, talking with several other men, he breathed a sigh of relief.
I wonder who was wounded here then? he thought.
Michael stopped the Jeep and hopped out. When he looked on the side of the road, he saw the two bodies laid out, utterly still. He stopped abruptly, recognizing both of the bodies. Beyond them there was another group of wounded that were being tended to with rough first aid.
Maybe it makes me a lousy person, but I won't miss Luke in the least, he thought. But...
Michael breathed a long, loud sigh. He felt an arm go around his shoulders and turned to see his father, looking at him.
“I know you knew them both. I did what I could, I got the truck stopped before they rammed it into the trenches, but they still used it for cover. Dan finally broke their defense with one of those grenades. He ran right out towards the truck, chucked that thing right over the armor and into the bed where they were firing from. But he was hit several times when he was running out there. Maybe I should've let them get closer before stopping the truck, but...”
Andrew shook his head.
“I'm sorry son, he was good man.”
Michael shook his head, the unshed tears in the corners of his eyes blurring his vision.
“He held this town together when things fell apart,” Michael said. “ Who'll do that now?”
“He and I were chatting before we knew they were attacking here also. He said almost the same thing about you Michael. That you were the glue that was holding everything together around here. Despite no-one knowing you, everyone trusted you. He thought pretty highly of you son.”
The tears that were building up in the corner of Michael's eyes broke free, sliding down his cheeks.
Why did it have to be Dan? The first person I actually got to know around here. The only one who knew me for all those years, even if I didn't know it at the time. Crap, he was married too. Who's going to tell his wife?
The answer was obvious to Michael, he'd have to do it himself, he wouldn't feel right if anyone else did.
“This is all my fault, dad. They keep coming after the mine and I just keep trying to hold onto it because that's my job, to protect and run the mine. But with everything that's happening, maybe I should just let them have it, go somewhere else where no-one knows me, just disappear.”
Andrew's eyes narrowed and his voice was sharp when he replied.
“Michael. Not a bit of this is your fault. You're doing the job you're supposed to do, plus so much more. Dan died doing his job. What do you think these raiders would have done if they hadn't been driven off? It isn't just the mine, they're rabid jackals trying to tear
down the last bits of civilization. Maybe they hate it because they never fit in. Maybe they think that they're entitled to whatever you have here just because they want it. But they were here with destruction in mind; the mine was secondary for these raiders. Maybe the Wizard you said was leading them had plans for the mine, but I guarantee the raiders wanted the town, not the mine.”
Michael's head snapped up. His father hadn't used that tone with him in years and Michael associated it with his having made a stupid mistake. His father continued, his voice becoming more gentle.
“I thought I taught you better than that Michael. Something is your fault if you do it or directly cause it to occur. You did neither here, so don't blame yourself.”
Michael's reply was almost plaintive.
“Then who should I blame? Who is it that they want to kill? Who's the reason they keep sending people here. Last time it only involved Rynn and myself, this time there were how many more involved from the town? And some of them were killed.”
The volume of his voice rose as he continued.
“So who's to blame for those deaths? What about next time? You know they won't give up. You know those bastards at the Council as well as I do, if not better. So, who do I blame for all this if not myself?”
Andrew shook his head sadly.
“I never thought hubris was one of your faults Michael, but now I begin to wonder.”
What? Michael thought. What's he talking about?
“How much pride does it take to blame yourself for something you were only a part of, and an involuntary part at that? I understand that Dan's death has you sad, probably angry also, but don't take it out on us, or on yourself. You asked who to blame?”
Andrew nodded to himself before continuing.
“You should know the answer to that, they're already responsible for the death of your mother. If they aren't given what they want, they'll try to take it by force, like this. Innocent people will suffer, and yes maybe die, because of it. That doesn't mean it's your fault. Dan knew what might happen when he got up this morning. You can be sure that he knew what would happen when he ran out towards the truck, but he also knew that it needed to be done, and did it. When you blame yourself for his death, it diminishes what he did. That's not the man he knew talking, it's not the son I raised either.”