Twisted Magics (Terra Chronicles Book 1)

by J. C. Jackson

  As we stood there in silence, I turned to watch everyone else working. I needed to do something, but I did not want to leave Silver like this either. It would be wrong after everything he had done for me.

  Lockonis was up in the second floor balcony with Retanei and Rathal and a few new people. I assumed Artemis was with them, but the wall was too tall to see her. Doc was on the main floor in the back slowly collecting the bodies with the help of others, including Brad and Darius. I heard them calling for more assistance. Vince was off to the side, talking with Savanas who was being very animated in whatever she was saying.

  Something with a faint arcane energy source caught my attention and I excused myself. Silver followed me anyway.

  I wandered aimlessly for a few minutes, trying to get my bearings. There was an antechamber off to the right of the altar that I was being drawn toward. As soon as I reached the doorway, I stopped and covered my mouth with my hand, looking away. This scene was more gory than the rest. This man had been stabbed multiple times - there had been a fight in here.

  The male Human wore blue and gold clerical robes and looked young. The top part of his shoulder-length brown hair had been pulled back, the ends hanging in his own blood like a paintbrush. His sword and shield still held.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Vince and Savanas making their way over. Retanei and Lockonis had come down to give them an update at some point and followed.

  Silver’s hand gripped my shoulder. He said, “Paladin Marsh.” He gently moved me out of the way and knelt next to the fallen man. “Brother, I may have called you a windbag, but I never wanted to see you silenced.”

  Entering the antechamber, something was still on the edge of my senses. I said, “He doesn’t seem to have been part of the necromancer’s spell.” I doubted that was much of a relief.

  “No, he fought, but without looking at the security video I wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly what happened,” Silver said and looked at the people gathering behind me. “Paladin Marsh would have set up a camera to record the service on the balcony. He used it to try and improve his sermons. He could go off on passion-filled tangents rather easily.”

  Retanei nodded and said, “I saw it when I had gotten up there and left it recording. I haven’t taken a look at the footage yet.”

  Lockonis came in looking around. She asked, “Ket, you picking up anything in here?”

  “Yes, but I can’t tell what,” I admitted. Must have been because I was too drained still. Even the simplest of spells would put me at dangerous levels.

  Both of us converged on the corner hidden by a changing screen.

  “Oh Gods…” Lockonis said.

  She beat me to it by a split second and I felt my face pale when I saw the same type of arcane bomb that destroyed the Waking Dawn.

  Lockonis ordered loudly, “Evacuate everyone NOW!” I never witnessed her take such a commanding tone before.

  In her rush to start the evacuation, Lockonis bumped into me and I knocked the changing screen over. Instead of following the others, I knelt before it, trying to see if there was a way to disperse the rapidly building energy - it would explode soon.

  “Ketayl!” Lockonis yelled in a panic.

  The others were relaying the evacuation order and starting to retreat when they stopped to see what was happening.

  It was the only choice I had - the energy was too close to release to get everyone out. Even we were too close.

  Grabbing the bomb, I pulled on everything I had left, digging as deep and pulling as hard on whatever arcane energy was around me as I could, and teleported a short distance to a place I saw on the way in. It would be far enough away from everyone else. I threw the arcane bomb as far as I could before falling in the freezing cold water.

  I was done. I could not find the strength to try and get back to the surface. I prayed for the first time in my life to whoever would listen that it was the only one.

  Something hit me hard - the bomb had detonated. I was knocked out of the water and hit the ground, rolling. I thought I heard screaming, but I hurt so badly all over that I could not tell who it was.

  I also heard muffled voices - they sounded urgent. If they wanted me to research something for them, it would have to wait - I needed sleep.

  Chapter 20

  The first thing that pulled me from the blissful darkness was pain. More than I ever felt before. Pushing through the haze clouding my mind, I forced myself to open my eyes and find out the cause. My mouth felt dry and something was forcing me to breathe at awkward intervals.

  “I was wondering when you would come back to us,” a male voice said.

  I recognized that voice. It took a lot of effort to turn my head toward it, and I was not sure why Vince was sitting there. He had a book, or at least it looked like a book. The whole picture was blurred and out of place. Maybe I was not awake yet. Why had I wanted to sleep before? I hated sleep.

  “You’ve been out for about a week. Lockonis wasn’t exaggerating when she said you drained yourself completely. For your first field assignment, that was hell. Good job managing to scare all of us half to death with your last stunt,” Vince said and bookmarked his place as he stood up. “Let me go notify the hospital staff that you’re awake.”

  Once he left, I turned my head to look out the window, or at least what I thought was the window - it was dark. I vaguely wondered what time it was, but could not seem to find a clock. I was having a hard time trying to focus on anything.

  Something reddish laying on me caught my attention. I tried to move an arm to grab it, but ended up groaning as pain shot through me instead.

  “You probably won’t want to move for a bit.” This time it was a voice I did not recognize and I tried turning to look at the new person.

  It was an Elven man. White hair? The lighting and my poor vision was making it difficult.

  He said, “I’ll talk to the doctor on duty about upping the levels of your pain medication. You were so weak we didn’t want to harm your system. We also didn’t want to shock your system by using any healing spells. You are certainly one lucky lady, miss.”

  He walked around while he talked, checking this and that, writing on his clipboard. Did he have a clipboard when he came in?

  He departed quickly.

  “Where?” I asked, my voice sounded hoarse and it took more effort than it should have - the attempt made my eyes water.

  Vince returned to his chair and said, “You’re in the hospital in Ocean’s Edge - they didn’t want to risk moving you any further. I’ve already gotten an earful from Kitteren so you should probably expect the same.”

  I would more than happily sit through one of my sister’s lectures right now - it was better than being dead. For being younger, she worried too much about me. I thought it was the older sibling’s job to worry over the younger ones.

  “One?” I asked - I needed to know. I only hoped he understood what I was asking.

  Vince said, “Yes. What we can gather from the footage is Brown only made the one to go off after he collected whatever it was he came for. He likely wanted to draw the attention of the city. With the number of dead, there would have been a lot of responders walking into the effect.” I was glad Vince did not need me to try and elaborate further. “Now rest, you need to heal. I’ll keep Kitteren off of you until then.”

  Struggling to try and sit up, I needed to know more. I did not want to rest - there was work to do. Everything hurt and I thought about giving up.

  Vince was pushing me back down and I mentally cursed him and his lack of effort to get me back in place. He hit a button on the side of the bed in the process. “I said you need to rest. You’ll do no one any good if you hurt yourself more.”

  The same Elven man came back in and said in a rush, “Please stay put, miss. You’re straining yourself too much.”

  I was not going to back down. “No,” I said. I hurt everywhere, but the pain was helping me focus. I needed to find out everything tha
t happened. My vision blurred further and my cheeks felt wet.

  Another came in, but between the two easily keeping me in place, I could not see who it was. The nurse accepted something and took my hand. “I’m sorry, miss, but you need to rest.”

  The fog was coming back quickly and then darkness greeted me once more.

  ~*~

  The sun was up by the time I woke again. The pain was considerably lower and my vision cleared, but I felt drained. The reddish thing that caught my attention before was my braided hair. It sat innocently on top of me over my right shoulder. Immediately it made me think of Silver.

  The pain I felt then was not a physical one. He lost all of those he cared about. I fought against my eyes watering.

  “He almost did.” It was a different voice this time. I recognized Lockonis quickly.

  Had I spoken aloud? I turned to look at her.

  Lockonis shook her head and said, “Geez, Ket, can you not pull something like that? I’m supposed to be the crazy one, remember? And anyway, since when have you been able to teleport?”

  I supposed I was in for a tongue lashing from a number of people. My mouth felt too dry to respond. Lockonis reached over and punched a button on the side of the bed.

  “Hold those thoughts for when you don’t look like Death warmed over,” she said teasingly. “In any case, I should probably give you a rundown of what happened after you decided to play hero. But that can wait until the doctor looks at you.”

  She was looking over her shoulder toward the door when a couple of people came in - different than last night.

  One of the new people came over and started sitting my bed up - she looked like she was a nurse. The other wore a white lab coat.

  The doctor addressed me, “Miss Ketayl, you are certainly looking better. Your Director asked us not to restrain you. You certainly were determined last night even with the state you were in.” She paused to read something on the computer in the corner of the room that I had not noticed before. “I think you’re through the worst of it. Your vitals have been looking good since you woke up last night, but I’ll need your friend here to confirm your arcane levels are stable. A caster of your type makes things a little more interesting. I’m glad we had the help of the EAC to figure out how to care for you.”

  “Her arcane levels are stable. I’ve been here for a few hours and she’s low, but she hasn’t dipped back down again,” Lockonis said.

  I could not understand what they were talking about. I tried to dig into my mind for information, but gave up quickly, not wanting the headache that threatened to come forth.

  The doctor made a face. “Not quite what I was hoping to hear, but we should be able to have some healing spells cast now. The rest will simply require time.”

  They bantered back and forth and I tuned them out. Taking the offered cup of water, I thought about everything that happened. The images were there and all I could see was the death and destruction. Looking at the cast on my left arm, I walked away relatively unscathed. So many… so many…

  “Ketayl? Ketayl, look at me,” Lockonis said and was practically on top of me, trying to get my attention. Her face was too close for comfort. “You need to keep it together. Remember what you promised Silver.”

  I promised to play for the dead. Then I raised my cast-covered arm a bit, not trusting my voice to tell her I needed both hands.

  “Soon,” the doctor said and smiled at me, “He’s usually here about this time to check on you. Actually, there he is now.” The doctor was looking out the door. My eyes went to the door, both wanting to see Silver and yet not wanting him to see me like this. His overprotective nature was not something I could deal with right now.

  Why did I want to see Silver? I barely knew him. Or any of the others for that matter.

  It was a few moments before Doc walked through the door and my heart sank. It was a sensation I not had before and I filed it away for later contemplation. Perhaps I simply had gotten used to Silver’s presence.

  Doc said, “It is wonderful to see you awake, Ketayl. We’ve all been very worried.” He quickly accepted the clipboard from the doctor.

  With four sets of eyes on me, the small room felt extremely crowded. The hospital doctor patted my foot and excused herself and the nurse.

  Doc said, “I can heal your more severe injuries. You’ll still need to stay here overnight for observation, but after that I don’t see a reason you can’t continue your recovery at the hotel. You will have to promise me to take it easy though.”

  He began digging through his bag. Doing what doctor’s do, he commented, “Paladin Blaise wanted to be here, but his order had called him back to the church a couple of days ago. I offered to do this in his stead. The process is easier when it is someone you’re at least familiar with.” He moved quickly, checking vitals, and I was not ready for when he shined a light in my face.

  Blinking to try and see straight again, I felt a little more confident in my voice. I managed to get out, “Didn’t know… healer.”

  Doc laughed lightly, “Well, not to many would. Most things can be cared for with modern medicine, which is preferred, but there is still a call on occasion for a bit of divine intervention. There are too few of us who practice both, but it has started becoming popular again among your generation. It simply is a matter of time before there are many who will be experienced enough.”

  He made small talk with me as he healed my injuries, explaining what he was about to do and what I was likely going to feel during it. By the end, I ached still, but I felt a lot better.

  Lockonis had left at one point and I heard her outside talking to someone. They spoke too low for me to hear or to make out who the other person was.

  I felt better, but I was tired. My sister once tried to explain to me that most healing magic amplified a body’s natural healing ability. It was something she had learned while training as a tracker.

  Once Doc finished, he looked at the tube still stuck in my arm. He said, “Let’s get that off of you and remove this cast to make you more comfortable.” I looked away before he began pulling the needle out.

  I found out upon coming to the TIO that I did not like needles at all and would have to divert my attention. It still made me squirm as he gently removed the device, but once it was out and he placed a little square of gauze over where it had been, I was fine.

  Lockonis poked her head in. “How’s it going in here?”

  Doc was still holding my arm, putting a blue medical wrap over the gauze. He answered, “Good. Just need to get this cast off and with overnight observation, she will be fine. And rest, don’t forget plenty of rest.”

  “Great! I have a visitor for you,” Lockonis said and smiled broadly. She came in, dragging someone behind her. That someone was Savanas who looked more than a little agitated at her former partner.

  Yanking her arm away from Lockonis, Savanas said, “Well, you certainly look a lot better than when I was here yesterday.” Her face changed to relief.

  I simply nodded as the sound of velcro separating loudly claimed the room. Once the outer shell of the cast was removed, Doc set about cutting off the cloth wrappings.

  “Ketayl, I need you to make a fist,” Doc ordered gently.

  The conversation paused for a bit. I made gestural responses to his questions about if something still hurt. I did not trust my voice after the effort it took to speak earlier.

  Doc announced, “It looks like we’re good here. Have them call me if you need me.” He patted my leg as he stood up.

  I nodded in response and then felt a bit of trepidation as he left, leaving me with two powerful TIO agents. Savanas crossed her arms over her chest and stared me down. She said harshly, “You have some explaining to do.”

  “No kidding,” Lockonis jumped in excitedly. “I mean I didn’t believe the footage when I saw it. And then that last stunt… you were running on empty when you teleported with the arcane bomb.”

  “That was a damn stupid fool th
ing that you did, and hells if you didn’t save all of our asses with it,” Savanas said, giving up her tough act and hugged me.

  Lockonis chimed in, “You know that first part made no sense.”

  “Oh, shut up.”

  Since my voice was not the best, they spent the next while catching me up on what transpired. Which included that until he was ordered back to the church, Silver refused to leave my side. Lockonis seemed to think it was adorable.

  Archmage Maewon and a couple of his highest level mages set up a rotation with Lockonis to keep transferring arcane energy to me. My levels had kept dropping and they worried what would happen if I drained completely again.

  The others from the Ocean’s Edge office had all taken turns staying with me - apparently Rathal and Darius managed to hook up their game system to the screen in the room. Vince had been mostly busy dealing with Naval Command and the media, but would come in overnight.

  They also told me of a memorial service was scheduled to take place in a couple of days. They also spoke a little about the few people in the group they managed to take into custody. They left out important details like what the body count was because I was too slow to figure out Brown’s true objective.

  Chapter 21

  After spending another day resting in the hotel, I was getting restless - I needed something to do. I could not go very far since Retanei had hidden the keys. Or returned them - I forgot. Not to mention, she was out picking up something for us to eat. It was the first time since I returned that she let me out of her sight.

  The well wishers continued to visit yesterday, but it was quiet today. It was only a hour until noon and I was ready to climb the walls. I understood the others had a lot of work that needed to be done and I would be inundated back at the lab, but I needed to do something now.

  There was Silver’s request. Testing the dexterity in my left hand as I walked, I pulled the case onto the bed with me and busied myself. I was ready to start playing through pieces I thought might be appropriate when Retanei returned. She stood at the doorway with Artemis at her side. She said, “Oh, sorry. Are you sure you’re up to that?”