by Taki Drake
Without conscious thought, Pawlik leaned further over Ruth and wrapped his arms around her. The shroud was rough with millions of small crystal edges, but it didn’t matter to him. The additional amount of skin that was touching Ruth let him understand her feelings and needs even better. Her loneliness and fear started to subside. Her comfort increased. He began to see a series of mental snapshots, like still pictures that appeared one after another. At first confused, he began to realize that he was actually communicating with Ruth and held her more tightly as he focused on the pictures.
Pawlik watched as images of two fair-haired boys evolved from small babies to grown men. He recognized Cal as one of them, but the older was a mystery. Something about a commonality of stance and expression told him that they might be related. The pictures captured moments of play and activities. They created a connection from the child that Cal had been to the adult that Pawlik now knew. As the Cal in the picture got closer to the man with whom Pawlik was familiar, a woman with a warm and smiling face appeared in many of the visions. Her dark hair lay softly on her shoulders and her affection for Cal was apparent in her posture and proximity.
Other pictures featured an older man, a variety of couples and what appeared to be a family that formed around the other child as an adult. Pictures of some type of celebration, small four-legged animals, and other situations and events quickly overwhelmed Pawlik’s ability to remember while still contributing to a feeling of familiarity.
Suddenly, Pawlik stood up and broke contact with Ruth. He stared at her intently for a moment and turned to look at the door where the privacy lock had been engaged. Turning back toward Ruth, the man took a deep breath and removed his clothing. Pausing for a second of doubt, he grabbed a light covering, crawled into the bed and placed an arm and a leg over the top of her body, before covering them both with the blanket.
The tendrils of light exploded in a flash to cover his body, as he tensed in preparation for pain. Instead, a feeling of gratefulness and intensified pleasure and comfort flooded through him. The strain he had felt from Ruth just a few moments before was gone. There were still no words to their communication, but he could feel the deepness of her comfort increase. He knew now that she didn’t feel alone and he realized, to his surprise, that he was also feeling more centered.
As he descended into sleep, Pawlik felt as if ghostly arms were hugging him back and could detect the feather touch of a good night kiss in the center of his forehead.
Chapter 7 – Mage Emergent
Several days had passed since Pawlik had promised Troyer to provide better care for his grandmother. Each night Pawlik slept in the bed with the crystalline shroud, providing full body contact with the chrysalis. Ruth’s emotions continued to ease, and Pawlik’s perception of ghostly touch continued to expand. It had become part of their shared nightly ritual for Pawlik to feel insubstantial lips kissing his forehead and a low sweet voice murmuring some sort of nonsense rhyme to him.
His increased ability to connect emotionally and viscerally with Ruth, even in her encapsulated state, also allowed Pawlik some perception of other aspects of the Mage transformation. He knew that some significant changes were happening to her body. Her feelings of discomfort and physical pain combined with a growing awareness of her body’s evolution began to increase in intensity and frequency.
The pool of power that he associated with her Mage ability was growing rapidly. As the depth of their bond grew, the sheer size of her Mage talent both frightened and exhilarated him. The training that he had been provided in a family noted for its Mage Anchors had been wholly inadequate to a good understanding of what he and Ruth were now going through.
While understandable given the long time since the last living Mage and Mage Anchor, Pawlik felt woefully unprepared for whatever situation that might be approaching. For a man who preferred to be prepared, this was not a position of comfort.
Pawlik dressed for the day. Turning to leave the room, he murmured to Ruth, “I will be back after shift ends.” An insubstantial hand touched the side of his face in farewell, and he smiled. Thinking that perhaps that his day didn’t have to start quite so early, Pawlik pulled off his uniform again to prevent it from getting crumpled and sat down on the side of the bed. Putting one arm around the top of Ruth’s body, he began to read the day’s messages aloud to her.
Troyer and Techla sat on the couch waiting for their daily reassurance from Pawlik about Ruth’s comfort and emotional well-being. The door to the hallway slid open and Sgt. Gray walked through accompanied by another, older man. The sergeant was still speaking to the guard at the door as he walked in and did not notice the children right away.
“We need to talk to Pawlik immediately. That bastard Bartha and his crew are getting worse, and I’m afraid that they will shortly be out of control. We will just wait in here until Pawlik is available.”
Both men appeared startled that the children are sitting on the couch. Looking a bit unsure, they stood uneasily on one side of the room. Troyer piped up and said, “If you like, I will go get Grandpa, and he can talk to you.”
The two men looked at each other in confusion before Gray turned to Troyer and asked, “Are you speaking about Commander Pawlik? We are not familiar with the term that you used.”
Troyer looked surprised but explained, “I called him Grandpa, like my father’s father. Since he’s bonded to Grandma, I think that makes him my grandfather.”
The older man continued to look confused, but Gray had an arrested and hopeful look on his face. He excitedly demanded, “Are you saying that Pawlik can consider you to be his son’s son?” When Troyer nodded in agreement, the men exchanged amazed glances and become even more excited. They drew closer to Troyer and started firing questions at the boy.
Cal came into the sitting room to find the two men carefully interrogating Troyer. At first concerned, he quickly becomes amused at the scope of cultural misunderstanding. It turned out that the rest of the former slaves had all been confused about the relationship between Ruth and Cal. They thought Cal was Ruth’s mate and that Troyer was their child.
The upset that Cal had witnessed on the day of Ruth’s Mage emergence was Gray’s anguish about the effect on the inheritance of Pawlik’s estate. Mage Anchors normally did not have other strong relationships. Whether or not the relationship between Mage and Anchor was sexual, the bonding between the two superseded the formation of additional marital ties.
By Pawlik becoming a Mage Anchor, they thought he had given up any chance of having an heir. Learning that Cal was Ruth’s progeny, not her mate and that Troyer was her grandson changed everything for Pawlik’s status and position in the politics of his world. Gray and the other man, whose name was Ravilohr, continued to chatter excitedly about the ramifications and what would probably happen when they all returned home.
Against the background of their discussion, Troyer’s voice cut through like a sharp blade, “What about Mark? And what about Uncle David and Evan and Brad? Don’t they count too?”
As the two men stared at the child in confusion, Cal’s smile grew wider and turned decidedly mischievous. He decided to take pity on them and attempted to explain.
“What Troyer is trying to tell you is that he is my younger son. His older brother Mark is hopefully still well and living with his mother back on Earth. Also, I am the younger of my mother’s two sons. My elder brother, whose name is David, also has two sons. The older one is Evan and the younger is Brad. So if Pawlik’s status relates to the number of heirs that he has, at this point he has six, not two.”
“By Milla’s curly hairs! This is beyond possible! Having that number of heirs is unheard of on our world. It will change Pawlik’s status even more than I thought. Each of the main estates could have their own ruler, even!”
The excited discussion began to swirl among the men as the children listened quietly. Only Techla noticed a soft sound from the hall outside the doorway before the door opened and Bartha and a group of four
other men invaded the sitting room.
Starting to his feet, Gray shouted, “How dare you enter so rudely! And what have you done to the guard?”
Bartha arrogantly responded, “We have come to demand answers from that incompetent Pawlik. The guard will recover even though we could easily have killed him.” As if to emphasize the point, the weapons in the hands of Bartha’s companions were brandished and waved at the room’s inhabitants.
Pawlik wasn’t sure whether he actually heard or just sensed a disruption in the sitting room. Driven by a sense of urgency, he stopped only long enough to pull on his uniform pants before leaving the bedroom. A scene of chaos met his surprised eyes.
Bartha stared at his attire and sneered, “So the high and mighty Pawlik is no better than the rest of us. You are just taking advantage of Ruth and probably controlling any access to her. Either that or you have killed her and are concealing that despicable deed from the rest of us.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Your presence in this room is not acceptable, please leave immediately.” Even partially clothed, Pawlik’s commanding manner gave pause to the gang of bullies. Attempting to regain control over the interaction, Bartha shouted, “We did not escape slavery from the Insectoids only to become your servants. You are not entitled to command, and we are going to replace you!”
Cal straightened up and raised a hand in protest. Before he could speak, one of Bartha’s companions turned and slammed the butt of his weapon into Cal’s stomach. Troyer’s yell of protest was overwhelmed by the high shriek of Techla’s scream. In the split-second before escalation to full-fledged violence the door behind Pawlik whispered open.
Ruth emerged. The confrontation stopped as everyone in the room stared voicelessly at her in shock. Whatever they had thought would appear when her transformation was complete was far different than what their eyes were telling them now. The woman that had gone into the chrysalis had been middle-aged. Her hair had been peppered with gray, her face graven with both smile and frown lines. Her figure had been rounded and not particularly athletic.
The woman emerging from the bedroom appeared to be in early adulthood with dark auburn-shaded black hair and large hazel eyes. Her figure was athletic and slightly rounded. The skin of her face was unwrinkled and flawless. Yet somehow it was still Ruth. Her sense of calm, power, and control was still there but in a more intensified and purified form.
When she opened her mouth to speak, the echoes of the woman they had known a month ago could be heard, carried within the cradle of her voice. “You will stop this now.”
Bartha broke into a hurried speech, “Lady, we were concerned that we had not seen you! Please forgive our rudeness, but you know that we were only thinking about your welfare. I don’t know what this man is telling you, but we have longed to see you back. Many a night have I laid awake, full of concern and feeling powerless to help you.” He moved closer to Ruth, stretching his hand out toward her. She glanced down toward his hand and then looked him full in the face, “Bartha, I may have just gone through a transformation, but it didn’t erase my brains or my good sense.”
An expression of sheer rage flashed over Bartha’s face as his other hand came out of concealment with a knife. In a split second, he had slammed it toward her abdomen, yelling, “Die Bitch!”, as the rest of the gang exploded into violence.
Pawlik dove desperately toward Ruth in an attempt to grab the knife, but Bartha was too close and too fast. The knife connected to something that shattered the blade a few inches away from Ruth’s body. Her left hand raised and she pointed her index finger at him, as he stared unbelievably at his broken weapon. A length of red light emerged from her hand and collided with Bartha. A disbelieving scream of agony emerged from the man’s mouth as he quickly burned to ash.
Spinning toward the other four assailants, she saw that Gray and Cal had subdued one of them. An apparently injured guard had entered the room and knocked another man unconscious, and was wrestling with a third. The fourth assailant was stalking Troyer and Techla, as the children frantically hid under and behind furniture.
Snarling in a fury, Ruth raised both of her hands in the air and spread her fingers. A gray shimmering light crawled up her arms onto her hands as she flung light across the room. The liquid matter formed into links of ephemeral chain that quickly wrapped the four attackers securely.
“I will not tolerate such lawlessness and evil around me,” she cried.
One of the men shouted at her, “You have no right to stop us!”
“Oh but I do. I have the right of high and low justice, over single beings or entire worlds. I claim the rights of the Mage to go with the price that I have paid.” Drawing a deep breath, she continued, “I have no desire to kill at a whim nor do I wish to have those that look to me worry about capriciousness. To that end, you will have a formal trial and sentencing so that all that look to me will know what to expect.”
The man that had shouted continued to utter threats and curses, so Gray muffled his mouth with a convenient rag. One of the other men whimpered wildly as Ruth looked at him. Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, a small tendril of black extended from her right hand into the man’s forehead. As he struggled uselessly, the tendril touched him between the eyes and he collapsed limply.
“Pawlik, they have two women back in their quarters that are tied up and have been abused!”
Pawlik moved quickly to the desk and ordered a team to search Bartha’s rooms and free the women. He also suggested that they get Mary to go with them to provide comfort and reassurance.
Gray and Ravilohr were sent off to determine from where Bartha had stolen the weapons and to make sure that the key areas of the ship were secure. With many a backward glance at Ruth and her altered appearance, the two men left, dragging the prisoners with them.
Everybody in the room stared at Ruth. Cal and Pawlik didn’t know what to do and were frozen in place. However, the children don’t have any question on what they needed and wanted. The top item on the list for both of them was a hug from Ruth. It didn’t really make a difference what she looked like. They somehow knew that she was still their grandma. Without hesitation, both children flung their arms around Ruth.
At first, the hugs looked like simple embraces. After a few seconds, however, the lines of sparkles began to highlight where Troyer was touching Ruth. Cal started toward his son in concern, but Pawlik stopped him with a gentle hand. Moving behind Ruth, Pawlik placed his hands on two areas of Ruth’s exposed skin. “Now try touching her, boy.” Troyer reached out toward Ruth again, and this time, there was no hurt and no appearance of Mage light. For a brief moment, Ruth and the two children simply enjoyed the closeness and the reassurance of each other’s bodies.
“Pawlik, why did your touching my mother make a difference?” asked Cal.
“The function of a Mage Anchor is to provide the resonance of a world. When Ruth broke her mind, she also destroyed the harmony with her home world beyond repair. For the rest of her existence, she will need to have that resonance provided by a Mage Anchor.”
“Does this mean that she can never go home?”
“She will be able to tolerate short periods of time on her home world especially if I Anchor her frequently while she is there. However, she can never again live on Earth nor can she touch any planetary body without a Mage Anchor.”
Cal’s face showed an expression of deep sadness for his mother. Ruth noticed his grieving look and responded, trying to ease his mind. “Other than my remaining family that I want to be able to see occasionally, the sacrifice was worth it. I no longer have significant ties back on Earth anymore.” Her expression closed off, and she quickly left the room to go back into the bedroom.
The guard asked, “Respectfully, Lord Cal why did Mage Ruth say that there are no longer any ties for her?
Cal explains somberly, “My stepfather, Ruth’s husband, sacrificed himself in an attempt to allow her to escape but was killed in the original capture. Even her pets were destro
yed as they tried to protect her. Her grief at their sacrifice so injured her that she became totally depressed when we were first captured. Only her desire to comfort and provide stability for Troyer and me made her claw her way out of that emotional pit. She has lost her husband, her partner, her dogs, her friends, and her library. The structure of her work and the peace of her garden have all been destroyed. Now she has no home world either.”
Pawlik caught Cal’s eyes with his own. “I promise that she will have friends and a library and as many gardens as she wishes. And her work will be far larger than it ever was when she was a normal human on your Earth. She will have a partner in me, and a husband if she so wishes.”
Quirking an amused eyebrow at the older man, Cal asked, “And what about the pets? I really need to warn you about those.”
“I could respond if I knew what a ‘pet’ happened to be.”
“Oh dear, let me explain about terriers and other challenges…”
Chapter 8 – Justice Day
Ruth had been up for hours. This was the day that the remainder of Bartha’s men would go on trial. The day that Ruth would somehow feel as an irrevocable step away from the person that she had been into a life far different from her existence as a working professional, mother, wife, and grandmother. She was going to be a ruler, and that frightened her on many levels. Not the sort of determined and stubborn fright that she fought during their captivity, but the fright of the unknown and the nervousness of walking forward without knowing where the ground was.
Pawlik had suggested using the ship’s computers to provide her with some information on court systems and Mage practices in the Galactic Alliance arena. So the previous day, Ruth had happily ensconced herself in front of a computer interface panel and started to explore. Computers were a familiar thing to her considering that she had spent most of her adult life in a profession that relied heavily on that technology. The ships computers were faster and subtly different than those she had used on Earth, but were familiar enough that she was comforted by the gestures and logic. Her comfort level was abruptly disrupted when she found information, pulled from the archives, on the responsibilities and practices of Mages.