by D. Levesque
“How many people are at the house,” I ask him, ignoring his question.
“Roughly twenty-four people. There are two weird ones, though. They go around in robes like they think they are monks or something,” he says with a laugh, which causes him to cough up more blood.
Sylvana looks at me pleadingly, but I shake my head no, and her shoulders slump. She knows there isn’t much more we can do for him, as the blood coming out of his mouth is more pink than red.
“I’m dying, ain’t I?” he says softly.
Sylvana kneels next to him and says softly, “Yes, I’m sorry, there isn’t anything more we can do.”
“You sound like an angel,” he says softly. “Wish I could see you,” he says with a sigh.
“I wish you could too,” she says, and there are tears in her eyes.
“Pal mo duu, Me Eltia Faloon,” she intones in a musical voice.
“That’s so pretty,” he says, and then he takes his last breath and dies with a smile on his face.
Kneeling down next to Sylvana, I hold her in my arms, her fur from her fox half-hybrid soft against my cheek. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, it’s just death is so final, and we Elves value life. All life, no matter what the person might have done.”
“What was that spell you did at the end? You didn’t teach me that one,” I tell her softly.
She gives a sad laugh. “No, it’s not a spell. It’s an Elvish saying. It means ‘May the spirits watch over you, as you cross the river of the Mother’.”
“We need to get in there now,” Lina says vehemently. She had pulled out her daggers,
We all look at her in surprise, but then the look on everyone’s face hardens.
“Were you all able to cast the circles?” I ask them.
They all answer yes. “Show me the closest one to here,” I tell Johanne.
She starts to walk back the way we came, but about a minute later she veers off the trail we had been on and points to the ground. To the naked eye there doesn’t appear to be anything there, but being a magic user, I can see it. It’s a faint blue. Going down on my knees, I put both my hands over it, since I will need a shit load ton of power for this. Much more than what I used for healing. It’s not that this spell uses a lot, it’s the intricacies I want to do with it that will be brutal.
“Roger, can you scout around us, make sure we aren’t jumped?” I ask him.
“Roger that,” he says, causing me to chuckle.
Once he is out of sight, I focus on the circle. I am not just looking to add to the circle, but connect another circle to this one. Since it’s not been tested, it might just fizzle out, and then we are back to plan B. Or is this B? Whatever, we are back to going in and removing everyone. And now that I know what they did to that man and that they wanted to infect a child with the Void, my drive to get rid of them is even higher.
Pushing that out of my mind, I focus on the circle below me and then reach out to find the next circle. It takes some figuring out, but finally, I find it. I feed it a tiny bit of power, and the two circles seem to connect. Fucking right! And so for the next thirty minutes, or at least it feels that long, I connect all the circles until I am finally at the last one. I try to connect that one to the one under my hands, but it’s stubborn. It’s not that I don’t have the power, it’s more like I’m pushing against something hard. Like a wall. So I grab some of my power from my lake, but I don’t cast it. Instead, I ball it up into a hard, dense ball of power. Once I feel it’s dense enough, I use my willpower to punch it through the wall.
With an almost physical sound of tearing, the last circle connects, and it flares to life. I mean, only I can see it, and most likely the girls, but it flared. Leaning back, I notice I am panting, pretty damn hard. Someone hands me a water bottle, and I grab it gratefully.
Once I’m finished drinking, I say “Done.”
“Brandon, that was amazing. I have never seen someone use magic like that!” Sylvana says in awe.
“Yeah, well. I hope the next time it’s easier. Because damn, for that last wall I had to use a lot of power. But it’s done. Now the trick will be to cast the sleep spell on it. I just need a pause,” I tell her with a smile.
“Want me to cast it?” she asks me with a soft smile.
“No, and yes. I will need all of you to cast it with me. Do you two remember it?” I ask Johanne and Lina.
They both nod yes. “All right, so put your hands on the circle, but stay out of it, and I want you to all say the words at the same time and cast it directly into the circle.”
The girls nod, and they all kneel around the circle without entering it, as instructed. We end up kneeling shoulder to shoulder.
“Ready?” I say. “On three. One, two, three.”
“Brata mehe lamona,” all three chat in unison.
I can see the spell’s power enter the circle, and somehow it ends up leaving and moving down the power line that I had created. About ten seconds later, the magic of that sleep spell comes back to our circle and leaves again, but I see that there is a trace of that sleep spell in it now.
“Brandon, what’s it doing?” Sylvana asks me worriedly.
Shit, what is it doing? I hold up my hand to forestall answering. Then I see the spell come back around again, faster this time, leaving some of the spell in the circle again, but I see it’s a larger amount.
“Fuck me,” I tell her in shock. “It’s like a centrifuge. As the spell goes around the circle, it goes faster and faster, but it leaves more power behind each time. It’s like the spell is gaining power every time it goes around,” I tell her, looking at her in surprise.
“Wait, so instead of just having it blanketing the area, it’s actually gaining in power?” she cries.
“Yeah!” I tell her with a laugh.
“But what happens when the spell gets too strong for the circle?” Lina says.
“Yeah, I’m not sure,” I tell her.
“Should we maybe step back?” Johanne says nervously, as she does exactly that.
“Yeah, it might be a good idea to move about ten or twenty feet back,” Sylvana says, looking at the magic going around and coming back. We can see that the amount of magic that is staying now is much more than what we had put into it.
We all step back twenty feet and watch. The magic is now going so fast that it’s just a blur, until eventually it forms a line of power on the ground within the circle.
Without warning, a soundless concussive wave, that heads toward the middle of the large circle we created. Then it collapses, and everything is still.
We all look at each other in shock. “Did it work?” Johanne asks in a whisper.
“Hmm, no clue. Only one way to find out, I guess.” I say, scratching my head. Honestly, I hope it worked, but I have no idea.
“Shall we get ready with what we need to go in?” I ask them all.
“Yeah, I will grab what I need,” Johanne says. She heads back to where we left the bag and opens it, and begins to take out a harness and put it on. It’s the one she wears during training. It has spots for her handguns, knives, and other things I am afraid to ask about. It’s custom made since it’s made to fit her in her half-hybrid form.
She offers me a weapon and I shake my head. “I will use these,” I tell her, patting my daggers. “Or these,” I say, showing her my hands. I make my claws come out and I see that they are black, like my feet.
“Damn, you even have claws hidden in there?” Lina says jealously.
“Yeah, found out the hard way. Good thing I heal fast in this form,” I tell her with a grin.
“Everyone ready?” I ask, looking at Lina, Johanne, and Sylvana.
“Everything is clear near us,” I hear Roger say in my right ear.
“Let’s go,” I tell them. “We have a meeting with a certain Ms. Newborn,” I say in a harsh voice.
Nearing the house, we see our first person, and they are passed out cold, snoring away. We already agreed that no
one lives. But as this one isn’t my target, Lina does the work. She disappears and reappears next to him, her dagger in his heart. The guy was wearing a bulletproof vest, but the dagger went in like it was butter. I hate this, but I know it needs to be done. The Void might have corrupted them or worked on them enough that they are brainwashed. To make sure he is dead and not taken over by the Void, after Lina is done I take my silver dagger and stab it into him. I am not sure what to expect if there is a Void in someone, but nothing happens with him.
We keep going. We see our next target. He is slumped over a bench in the yard in front of the large cabin, which honestly should be called a house. It’s huge. Johanne goes up to him, places her handgun silencer on him, and shoots the man in the heart from behind. Repeating what I did before, I go behind him and stab my silver dagger into his back. Suddenly there is a purplish flash and a wisp of smoke emerges from the hole.
“Shit,” I whisper. “Now we know what happens when I use silver to stab someone with some Void in them.”
Heading into the house from a back door, we encounter more men. Mostly those in paramilitary gear. We dispatch each of them one by one, with me stabbing them with my silver dagger after they’re dead. Out of the eighteen, we find two of them that release that flash of purple after stabbing them. Still no sign of the mages yet. Just as I think that, Lina rounds a corner and gets blasted with a fireball that hits her chest, causing her to fly backwards towards us.
“Shit! Mage,” Lina cries out in pain.
I rush over and cast heal on her, and some of the burned flesh heals up. Good thing she wasn’t wearing a shirt in her half-hybrid form, or it would be ruined.
“You good?” I ask her worriedly.
“Yes, Brandon. I am good, but fuck that hurt. There is only the one mage there by himself. I was able to see that much before the fucker hit me with that fireball.”
“Roger, can you take the mage out?” I ask him quietly.
“On it,” he says. Suddenly, he is off and around the corner in a flash. We hear a sort of wet splat and then Roger comes back around the corner, his ball covered in gore.
“Hmm. You might want to wash off,” I tell him.
“Oh, right,” he says. Then he vibrates, and the gore falls to the floor with another wet sounding splat.
“Only the one mage?” I ask him.
“Yep, and that hallway leads to a door, which I assume is where the rest of them are waiting. I am sure they know we are here now. It seems there is a pretty powerful barrier around that room. Even I can see it with my instruments. It’s too strong for me to pass through to see what is on the other side.”
“Shit, I thought no barrier could stop you?” I ask him.
“Yeah well, any barrier created by Elves, humans, and such. But something tells me that this Void is something else. So I won’t even be able to follow you until that barrier is down,” he says, sounding annoyed.
I wonder if that is because they were one of the later races created by the Elveesians? Maybe they are more powerful? God, I wish I knew more. Going to peek around the corner, all I see is the dead body of the mage, who was in robes, just as the dying man had told us he’d be (shit, I never got his name). All that’s left is a body without a head, and a neat hole punched through the wall. Looking at the door that he was guarding, I see what Roger meant about the barrier. It’s almost like a purple haze covering the walls and the door.
“So, what does the color of a spell signify?” I ask Sylvana quietly. “Our is usually blue.”
“Blue signifies purity. I have never seen any other color, other than black when the Vampires use some of their power, but it doesn’t mean evil. It just means darkness.”
“What about purple?” I ask her, pointing to the wall and door down the hallway.
“Purple?” she asks me, confused. She walks over and peeks around the corner before turning and looking at me oddly. “I don’t see purple.”
“What?” I ask her in surprise. “Roger? How come I can see the purple and she can’t?” I ask the floating ball next to me.
“I have a feeling,” he says hesitantly, “it’s because of your heritage. Maybe because you are an ‘Incubus’,” and I can feel the air quotes he’s using on that word, “you can see more types of magic?”
“Ok, so what does purple mean?” I ask.
“Not being a magic user, I cannot say, but maybe it’s for corrupted magic?” he says.
“I’ve never heard of corrupted magic,” Sylvana says. “But I know that when we fought the Void the last time, or our people did, it used a magic we could barely fight against.”
“Shit, great,” I say with a sigh.
I walk towards the door with everyone following, and we stop in front of it. I try to hear what is behind it, but I don’t hear anything. Looking at the door, or more the magic that is surrounding the door, it’s almost a dark purple. Slowly, I reach out and place my hand just in front of the magic.
“Brandon!” hisses Sylvana.
“There is only one way to get in, and I think it’s by breaking this shield. But that means the minute I do, we need to be ready. There is still one mage and our target in there. And at least four of the guards. Something tells me that those guards might have the Void in them, which means they will be harder to kill. I wish I had silver to give you,” I say with a sigh.
“What about if I coat their daggers and Johanne’s bullets in silver? Since they aren’t affected by it anymore,” Roger pipes in.
“You can do that?” I ask him, shocked.
“Sure, I have the silver in my storage, and it just means coating it. Let’s try. Johanne, can you take out some of your bullets and feed them to me?” Roger asks her.
“Feed them?” she asks, but then she nods as she sees a hole open up in front of Roger, as one does when I throw him my dagger. Johanne takes the clip out of one of her guns and removes the bullets one by one. She then shoves them into the hole in front of Roger. Once she has given him nine bullets, the hole disappears.
“All right. Put your hands out,” Roger tells her.
Doing so, Johanne forms a cup with her hands. Roger hovers over it and a hole opens, and the bullets start to drop out one by one. I can tell they are different now. They are silver in color, instead of bronze.
“What did you do?” I ask him curiously.
“I changed the shot. Is that the right term?” Roger asks Johanne.
“You mean the tip that fires into whatever you are shooting at?” she asks him.
“Yeah.”
“That would be the bullet.”
“Wait, what you gave me was bullets?” he says to her, but it comes out as a question.
“Yes,” she says.
Roger doesn’t say anything but waits. After not getting any further response after ten seconds, he goes on. “Fine, I replaced the bullet with a silver one instead. So whatever you shoot at will have that silver go into your target,” he says. “Now Lina, can you pass me one of your daggers?”
“You break it, I will break your tiny neck,” she says heatedly, but she passes one of her daggers through the hole in front of him.
“Don’t worry, I won’t break it,” he says. Then ten seconds later, he says, “Oops.”
“What?” Lina says furiously, her other dagger now in her hand.
“Kidding,” he says with a grin in his voice. “Here you go,” he continues, and a dagger emerges out of the hole in front of him, handle first. She reaches out and takes it, and then whistles with appreciation. Not only is it silver now, but Roger had etched her Werejaguar form on the blade.
“Damn, I forgive you,” she says, admiring the new blade.
“Now Sylvana, pass me your blade also,” Roger says, and proceeds to do the same for her blade, including etching her Wereform on it.
“Damn, when we get back you are doing that for me,” Johanne says passionately.
“Deal,” he tells her with a laugh.
“Remember, only use that gun f
or shooting them after they are dead. All right?” I tell Johanne. She simply nods.
“Everyone ready?” Once I get nods all around, I look back at the door.
9
Reaching my hand out, I place it as close to the purple magic as possible without touching it. Then, I cast fireball, but I don’t let it go. I let it build up by adding more and more of my power to it. I start to let the fireball leak out of my hand, but instead of it going straight out, I have it crawl over the door, almost touching, but not quite, the magical seal on the door. Once I feel the power is almost at its maximum and looking to break through, I pull my hand back and slap it forward quickly, hitting the door with an open palm.
There is an enormous explosion, but thankfully it all goes forward and blows the door and part of the doorframe into the room. My ears ring from the blast of sound. Looking into the room, I see that the four other security staff had been waiting for us, and the explosion had killed them instantly. The room is fairly large, with two doors leading off from it: one straight ahead and one to the left.
“Holy shit, should we have just knocked first?” Roger says with a chuckle as he floats through the doorway, now that the barrier is gone.
“Nope,” I tell him with a grin. “Otherwise they might have said no one was home.”
Lina walks over the broken door pieces and goes to each guard, stabbing them in the heart. I see she is using her silver dagger, and each body releases a purple flame.
“Shit, all four of them?” I ask her.
“Yep, it seems someone has been busy. So that would leave, what? Just the mage, and our primary target Melissa Newborn,” she says, looking around at the damage I caused.
“So two doors. One will have the mage, the other Ms. Newborn. How can we tell which would have which?” Johanne says, looking between both doors.
“That’s easy,” I tell her. I point to the one on the left. “No magic barrier.” Then I point to the one in front of us. “That one has a bigger barrier than the one I just took out,” I say.
“Then you, Brandon, know which door we are taking. Leave the mage to us. You go finish this target off so we can go home,” Lina says, putting away her dagger after cleaning it on one of the pant legs of one of the dead guys.