by Peter Hartz
“Well, Steve, you called this meeting, what’s up?” David smiled at Steven, and internally, the Chief Financial Officer seethed. He had made it plain several times to David that his name was Steven, not Steve, or Steve-O, or Stevie, or anything else. But he shrugged aside the old irritation, and pasted his usual smile on his face.
“Well, there are a number of things that I would like to speak with Michelle about. Do you know when she will be returning?” It came out completely innocently, sounding as if Steven was a concerned employee with legitimate business with the owner of the company he worked for, he was pleased to note.
“Well, her doctor has told her that she needed to get more rest. I think that is what she is doing. I am her legal power of attorney for the business, and her brother. Is there something you need to talk to her about that you cannot discuss with me?” David said it pleasantly enough, but inside he was certain this was the person he was looking for.
In the past four weeks since Michelle had been attacked, David’s team had quietly begun to notice everything going on around them. Phil had been leading and coordinating the efforts. His sixteen years of experience as an Army criminal investigator had come in handy in ruling out potential suspects. Slowly, they had eliminated everyone else inside the company, after a lot of careful, surreptitious and detailed work. Of course, the discussion the night ‘Gil Owens’ had been introduced to the team had been lively, to say the least.
It was amazing to see the results of the spells that Giltreas had cast that night. His explanations of what he had done had been picked apart and dissected by Phil and several others who were incredibly curious about the impossible abilities that Giltreas so took for granted. While Giltreas had not been able to provide answers to every question, it was evident to everyone in that room that he was not trying to hide anything related to his abilities, and magic in general, from the team. He later told David that he believed that establishing trust with the team was as important as David said it would be.
There were some questions that he had bluntly stated he would not answer, including those about some of his past experiences using magic, saying that his Patron would not be pleased were he to speak about them. He had expected more pushback on those issues, but he was surprised that the first time he made that statement he was met with knowing nods and grim faces. He had asked why they were accepting of his polite but pointed refusal to answer, but Phil had spoken for the group when he said they respected that he couldn’t talk about everything, and that everyone in the room most likely had been in situations that they were unable to talk about. It was the nature of being in the service of a state or nation.
Magic, Gil had explained, were thought of as two groups of skills: spells and enchantments. Casting spells started with four cardinal spells: heal, mend, wound, and rend. Heal and wound were spells that affected living things, just like mend and rend were spells that affected things that were not living, such as things made from metals, stone, or wood. Children were taught the four cardinal spells, and how well and how easily they were able to learn and cast them indicated how far their abilities would go, and how much they should be trained in the future as they grew to adulthood.
Spells could be cast in a variety of ways. The easiest was through the use of parts of plants, which were called makings, which were gathered in hand in the appropriate amounts and ratios, then were consumed by the magical force that caused the spell to happen, while the spell caster concentrated on the act the spell was meant to accomplish. This is the first form of magic learned, because some of the power needed to cast the spell is taken from the makings used to form and shape the spell. Mages call this plant magic. There were hundreds of spells that could be cast in this way, and the most powerful spells known were plant spells.
The time a spell caster needed to wait between casting spells started out very long, and diminished as the caster became more adept at the various spells they use regularly. New spells usually would require significant time to recover before casting any other spells, simply because of the demands a new, unknown spell made on the magical strength of the caster.
Potions are similar to plant magic, in that parts of plants are used to make potions. A kettle or pot is filled with the right amount of the purest of waters found, which is then heated. Plant makings are added in the right amounts, and then the pot is infused with magical force to bind the spell. The resulting magical potion is then used immediately if needed, or portioned out into small bottles that hold enough for a full dose. Mages know of only a very few potions: cure poison, cure sickness, cure wounds, and cure blindness are the most common, although the opposites could be created: poison, make sick, wound, and blindness. Potions provide the ability to use magic very quickly without using magic strength, such as while fighting.
After learning spells with makings, there were other forms. Runic magic involved carving a rune or runes into something permanent, such as wood, stone, or metal. The rune spell caster infused the work with magical force to set the spell in place and define what the spell would do. A word was also bound to the work. The result was called a rune mark, or mark. Then, to cast the spell, one needed to simply infuse the rune mark with magic force, and say in their mind the bound word when the mark had absorbed enough magical force to complete the effect. Runic magic was helpful because the mark maker only had to learn the spell, then infuse it into an object with a runic mark carved into it. Once completed, the mark could be used over and over by anyone capable of putting enough magical force into it and speaking the bound word.
Wand magic involved binding a spell or spells into a wand, and binding enough magical strength into the wand to cast the spells a number of times. A word was also bound into the wand for each spell that was bound to it, to serve as a release word to cast the spell. Spells could be bound to a staff, as well, but such enchantments of a large object required much greater skill and power on the part of the maker, although spells bound to staves could be cast many more times, as the larger objects could hold much more magical strength. Once the magical force in the wand or staff was used up, a mage could recharge it, even if he or she didn’t know the spells or the bound words of those spells.
Enchanting is the skill of binding a spell to something, such as weapons, armor, clothing, jewelry, a door, a rock, or any non-living object the mage desired. Most mages could enchant things with spells, but such enchantments were not permanent. Permanent enchantments required enormous skill and magical power to make the effect permanent, and caused the mage to have to spend many days or weeks recovering from the effort. A God or Goddess could make such permanent enchantments, but rarely did so, for reasons they did not share with mortals.
Enchantments could be either an effects or spells. Effects could make someone stronger or give them the ability to see in the dark or heal the wearer much faster than normal. Enchantment spells could be cast repeatedly until the magical strength in the object was used up. Once that happened, a spell could be cast to restore the magical strength in the object if it was enchanted permanently. An object other than a wand or staff could only be enchanted with a single effect or spell.
Every adult and child of every higher race had some ability with magic, and was able to cast the healing spell to some extent. Beyond that, abilities varied widely. It seemed that the children that could hold their concentration the longest were the ones that would be able to do the most with their magical abilities, but the ability to draw upon the ‘strength’ that was the source that powered spells also varied much as well.
All children could draw from the magical strength from inside themselves, which then took some time to replenish just like getting tired required sleep to restore the body’s physical strength. The source and amount of magical strength that a caster had available to them acted to limit their ability to cast spells – when the strength you used was depleted, you could cast no more until that strength replenished, which usually took most of the day or night.
Some beings
were able to draw from the strength in the living things around them. A very rare and precious few were able to draw from the very fabric of magic itself without harming themselves. The fabric of magic was a seemingly endless well of strength.
Once in a great while there were those few that could draw from magic without needing to be taught. For those with that rarest of abilities, instruction in mage arts was limited to expanding the spells they were able to cast, and to make sure they could recognize when they pushed even their formidable skills close to their limits. Such beings could be of any higher race, and were exceedingly rare, so much so that they were heralded when discovered. Giltreas had not heard of one being discovered in hundreds of years, and no one knew what gave them their ability.
When a magic spell is learned and cast for the first time, the caster must use a lot of makings for the spell, and will only produce a small effect that will affect a single being. The caster must also touch the being to cast the spell. As greater experience with the spell is achieved, less of the makings will be required, and the effect will be greater. Some casters will eventually be able to cast spells without any makings, using simply magical strength to make the spell.
Once that is achieved, the caster will attempt to cast the spell over a distance, without touching the being to cast the spell on them. This will once again require the caster to use a lot of makings, as the casting is much harder. Again, the skill of the caster will increase until the distance involved is significant, and the makings required is once more eliminated. Then, the caster will attempt to cast the spell over two people close together, requiring many makings again, with minimal effect. Over time, most mage spells can be used with maximum effect over a distance to the most number of beings, who could be further and further apart. Mages who bring their skill with a given spell to this level are said to have mastered that particular spell. This process may take years, or longer. It is for this reason that spell casters from shorter-lived races such as humans will focus on few spells to master, while learning many other spells with much lower skill, and requiring greater makings.
There were some spells, two in particular, that were of great interest to the team: detect magic, and dispel magic. Detecting magic was a simple spell that required almost no makings and no strength. The skill and strength needed to dispel a magical spell needed to be greater than that of the caster who cast the spell in the first place. Dispelling enchantments was next to impossible. Because of the high level of ability and strength needed to cast them in the first place, very few casters equaled the skills of those that were capable of making enchantments in the first place.
Several hundred years before Giltreas was born, a very old Halfling mage of exceptional ability discovered how to craft a spell that cast other spells, such as the spell that Giltreas used on the team. That spell cast a cure poison spell, followed immediately by a cure disease spell, followed by a healing spell, and finished with a cure blindness spell. This spell required the caster to master the spells to be cast by the casting spell. The effect was great, but the cost was higher to the caster than the combined cost of casting the spells separately. Casters who could cast such a casting spell were prized, especially those who could do so while fighting.
What Giltreas did not share was the speculation that has been talked about in the Elven Mage Council: that a spell-caster that can cast all the spells they know, and a great many of the known spells, at the greatest effect from the greatest distance and affecting the most beings, may have ascended to Deus, or low-god. He personally did not believe in such things, although the arguments in favor were compelling. The one argument he found most significant was that the time to master spells to the highest level was very long, and that most mortal lives would end before any such ascension could take place. He was adept at many forms and spells of magic, and he did not believe that he had become a low-god. The thought was laughable to him.
Chapter 27
David returned to the present as he realized that Giltreas had successfully cast the spell to compel Steven to be truthful and forthcoming with what David asked him without Steven knowing, and the CFO had no idea what was about to happen in David’s office behind closed doors.
Steven walked over and took a chair in front of the small conference table as David walked over to join him, sitting in his customary spot with his back to the windows.
“What’s up, Steve? You didn’t mention what you wanted to talk about in the meeting request. Is it something related to the budget for next year?”
Steven smiled outwardly, but inside the old familiar irritation arose at David’s inappropriate familiarity. It was more difficult to suppress this time, though. Since his plans had come so far apart, and he had no idea where to go from here, he was a little off balance inside.
“Well, no. Actually, there are several things I wanted to discuss with you and Michelle. More with Michelle, since she is CEO. When do you expect her to return?” A strange feeling was beginning to make its presence known inside his head. It was almost like a pressure, or a minor headache, and he wondered if he was getting sick again. These late summer colds seemed to drag on forever.
David seemed to frown slightly, as if annoyed by the question. “Steve, you and I talked about this with you in the past, after the announcement that Michelle was on leave. I am the acting CEO. I am fully aware of everything that Michelle knows, and if I have a question, I can get in contact with her to ask. What is it that you need to talk to her about that you can’t discuss with me? Why are you so insistent on speaking with her?”
The pressure increased as Steven tried to think about how best to respond to the question without giving away his real agenda, but he responded to the question almost as if someone else was controlling him.
“I need to know what happened to her at the cottage, and why they didn’t get you at the same time.”
Oh shit. Why did he just blurt that out? His face turned bright red as he tried to reign in his emotions and regain control, but the pressure inside his head increased, and started to cause some pain as he resisted whatever was influencing him.
“So you were behind the attack on Michelle?” The question came out flat, almost emotionless.
“Yes. I needed her and you out of the way so I could take this company in the direction it is supposed to go.” What is happening to him? It was becoming surreal. Why was he just opening his guts this way?
“What did you think was going to happen to Michelle and me?” The tone in David’s voice took on an almost menacing edge to it as David’s face transformed slightly, and Steven felt the blood beginning to drain from his face at what he was revealing.
“The team was supposed to take you and Michelle to a secluded location, and hold you there for several weeks until I was able to sign some contracts with the government…” The narration of what Steven believed was supposed to happen just seemed to flow out of his mouth, even while he tried to stop himself.
David looked at the slightly smaller man sitting across from him in his office as his mind raced. It was obvious that someone had misled Steven about what the team was supposed to do, and he tried to connect what Steven was told with what Michelle and Giltreas said actually happened. He suddenly realized something, and his eyes focused on the CFO, the trusted member of the inner circle who had just proven that he was out for himself, and damn the cost to anyone that got in his way.
“You are a total fool, you know that, right?” The statement came out calmly without any emotion at all.
The rhetorical question confused Steven enough that the pressure didn’t force him to blurt out whatever was in his mind. All he could do was gape at the younger man.
“The four animals you set on Michelle beat her to the point of death, and tried to rape her all the while. It is obvious that whoever you have been conniving with has lied to you about what they were going to do to her. One of them told me I was supposed to be next. I can only imagine what their plans were for Allison if they hadn�
�t been intercepted.” That same calm, emotionless voice suddenly caused Steven to lose control of his bladder slightly, before he clamped down completely, and he flushed as he felt the slight wetness in his pants.
The differences between what he was told by the Senator and his aide and by David shook him badly. He was a fool. Something else was going on here, but he couldn’t wrap his mind around it.
Then a question occurred to him, and he said it before he could stop himself. “Is Michelle still alive? Where is she? What hospital is she in?”
David nodded once. “In all the years that you have worked here, that is the first thing I have ever heard you say that was not about yourself or your responsibilities.”
“Well, where is she?”
“Why should I tell you anything?” David shot back. “You just tried to have her and I killed so you could take over our company.”
“I have to have them try again! I have to get control so I can take this company in the direction it is meant to go! You have to tell me!” Horror at what he just said made Steven quake inside. What was really happening here? Why was he so forthcoming with his true thoughts?
David was utterly shocked at the depravity of the human-shaped thing sitting across from him.
“Let me explain some things to you, you little piece of shit.” The first real anger flashed across David’s face as his voice slowly grew louder, and his prodigious self-control began to slip. “First of all, this is Michelle’s company. It is privately owned. She owns it. She built it from the ground up. She decides what is right for it, and what isn’t. I am also part owner, and her legally-established successor. Which means that should she not be available, like she is right now, then I decide what is right for it, and what isn’t. I am her legal power of attorney, just like she is mine. That means that I am legally able to act in her stead, and she in mine. Between the two of us, we own ninety-eight percent of the company. The one point two percent that you own isn’t worth a fart in a tornado unless we decide otherwise.