by Peter Hartz
The magic rock spell wasn’t the only spell causing law enforcement no end of grief right now, either. No, that was small-scale compared to some of the spells coming out. Someone must have gotten to Youtube.com and convinced them to stop allowing videos depicting magic spells and potion-making, but pretty much everyone with two brain cells to rub together and an Internet connection knew about it anyways. Closing Pandora’s Box won’t put the evils back in it, she thought to herself. The fireball spell was the worst of the bunch today, until something else came along to take its place tomorrow. Luckily, there were healing and mend spells to be had.
The mend spell was unique in that it fixed or improved any inanimate object. If your clothing was torn, ripped, wet, or worn out, cast a mend spell. It’s suddenly dry and perfect again. If a shirt or pair of pants don’t fit, cast a mend spell. It was magically altered to fit you, as long as you had that intention firmly in your mind when you cast it.
Intentions were rapidly becoming the new hack for spells. A healing spell could erase years of self-abuse and excess weight, as long as the caster kept that vision or thought in mind.
It could also erase tattoos one no longer wanted, or make new ones. Someone figured out how to make permanent, animated tattoos via a magical spell, and that idea suddenly became the new overnight sensation. Wolves howling, skulls casting evil laughs or having pulsing, glowing eyes, dragons breathing animated fire, beautiful women constantly undressing; the variations were as endless as the minds of those thinking them up.
Dozens if not hundreds of websites around the world were now hosting videos and documents on how to cast spells of all kinds, and what intentions produced the best results. Whenever one was shut down, two more were popping up. The most popular spells, after the obvious healing, cure disease, cure blindness, and cure poison spells (which were being referred to the Four Cardinal Health Spells or Potions) and the mend spell, were the food preservation spell, and the spell people were calling the Obfuscation Spell.
In short, the Obfuscation Spell was a magical version of encryption. Cast it on some data stored in a hard drive, on a book or some other written text, on a video clip or movie stored on a DVD or Blu-Ray disk, or even on a memory card, and only the people you wanted to be able to see, hear, and comprehend it would be able to.
It was possible, if the spell-caster was intelligent enough or forward-thinking enough, to hold in their mind that only a group of people meeting specific criteria would be able to access what was protected by the Obfuscation Spell, even if those people were unknown at the time of the spell casting, or if they hadn’t met the criteria yet. No one was quite sure how it worked, but it was obvious that it did work and was fiendishly effective. Of course, Michelle knew how all of it worked, for some reason, but she saw no need to let other people know that, especially not after her fun experiences at the hands of the N.S.A.
Spells of all kinds were popping up on the Internet every day. And people were realizing that defensive spells and spells that healed taxed the spell caster considerably less than offensive spells and spells that harmed.
Michelle shook her head. She had no idea on what to do to fix things in the world; no idea on where to begin. And she wasn’t sure if it was her place to step in, or even if she was capable. All she knew was that she felt like she was responsible. If it hadn’t been the attack on her that started the whole thing, she thought to herself in quiet sadness and near desperation, none of this would be happening right now.
“Actually, that is not even remotely true. You take more upon yourself than is rightfully yours to bear with that sentiment.” A quiet voice came to her from behind herself.
She didn’t turn around towards the sound of the voice, but spoke up from where she stood. “That may be true, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t feel some sense of responsibility. The world’s economy is teetering on the edge of total collapse. People are being harmed every day, and in many cases, are being killed by the hundreds or even the thousands. Previously pacifist religious organizations are encouraging their members to pick up weapons and not just defend themselves, but to go out in the world and fight for their ‘righteous cause.’ What a bunch of bullshit. The religious leaders are still demanding their money and power from their followers, and giving nothing in return. Nothing has changed there.
“And then there are all these Gods and Goddesses wandering around everywhere. I wish I could say they are making things better, but I don’t see it. In all likelihood, they are making everything worse as they leave chaos and confusion in their wakes. They have no concept of this world, and no idea how the people of this world feel or think, or what motivates them. I doubt that most of them have the mental capacity to understand how complex everything is, here. This place is not like anyplace else in the multiverse. And it is clear to me that these Deities still think of humans the way Delara’s people do – as simple, childish people that only want to eat, sleep, and have as much sex as they possibly can. And how the hell did they get that way?” She asked rhetorically. “That is about as impossibly far on one end of the spectrum as these humans are on the other. Sheesh.”
Sekur nodded to himself. He knew he’d made the right choice in her. Now to sell her on his vision.
“All these things you say are true. Every one of them.”
She turned to face him at last. “Then why the hell aren’t you doing anything about it? Why are you just sitting back and fiddling while my world burns?” Her anger smoked and roiled just below the surface.
He looked at her calmly, with compassion in his eyes. “I am forbidden by the bounds of my existence from doing so. I literally cannot stretch forth my hand and directly interfere. Every being that is on this plane, save me, is both a child of mortal origins, including those Gods that are making such a mess of things right now, and is also possessed of an immortal soul that chains them to the Great Path of the Soul. But there is one thing that is missing.” He held out his hand to her, and spoke. “Come, let me show you what it is.”
She looked at him cautiously, like he was a used-car salesman in a leisure suit trying to sell her a well-used AMC Gremlin or a beat-up Yugo without a warranty, and he laughed.
“I promise no harm will come to you. You will learn what it is you need to know. And you will be free to make your own decisions. Free will is not just an abstract concept to be debated in a college philosophy class. Every being, on every plane I am over, has free will, and has the joy, or the pain, of their actions as consequence for those choices they make. Come.” He held his hand out towards her, and she took it.
In an instant, the world around them became grey, and everything suddenly seemed to be made of shadows. He released her hand and stood calmly as she looked around.
“Where are we? What is this place? Oh! This is the Astral Plane, isn’t it?” Recognition dawned as she saw what was around her.
“Yes. There is an Astral plane attached to every Material plane. It is the place where the God of this plane would oversee what happens here, and direct it as he or she saw fit.” Her head snapped around to him in surprise at the choice of words he used, and he looked back at her calmly.
“By what you are saying, there IS no God of this material plane. What happened to him or her?”
“Him. His role ended when the wall was put up. He was overruled by the Gods and Goddesses who wanted to punish the mortals here who stood up to Anubis and Anaradelle when they demanded retribution from the mortals they felt were not remembering their place in the Gods’ vision of this portion of the Great Path of the Soul. And he felt betrayed by me, when I refused to step in and undo the damage, or even mediate between the Gods and the humans. I released him to ascend to the next multiverse, so he might continue his journey on his own personal Path. There has not been a God over this plane ever since.” He looked at her sadly, and anticipated her next question. “Five thousand three hundred or so years ago.”
Michelle was stunned by learning this. Then a dawning realization hit he
r, and she would have fallen over in shock if she was back on the material plane. Her mouth gaped open, and she could only stare at the Greater God as he stood back quietly while he waited for her to work it out for herself.
Minutes went by before she was able to find her voice again. “You told me you were going to offer me a choice. Is it truly my choice? Or are there consequences if I turn it down?”
“There are no consequences in this. I will consider other options and choices of what to do if you say no. You have free will, remember? One cannot call it free will if I punish you for making a choice I don’t agree with. I simply cannot unduly influence your choice one way or another. But I can try to convince you with words of the path I wish for you. You must know, however, that it involves some sacrifice on your part.”
She nodded. “I would leave the Great Path of the Soul, at least for a time.”
He agreed. “Yes. Eventually, you would be able to groom a successor to take over for you. Every role that is needed to serve the needs of the mortal souls may have a successor take over.”
A flash of understanding and inspiration hit her. “Most Gods and Goddesses don’t do that, do they?”
“No, they don’t.”
“If I do this, I will have to order all the other Gods to listen to me. Will that be an impossible task? How much will I have to compel them to do what I say? Wait, free will, again. This is a totally thankless job, isn’t it?”
Sekur said nothing. She knew enough about it to figure it out on her own. She did have another question, though.
“Why me?” In some people, that would have come across as whiney or plaintive. In Michelle, it was neither. Sekur recognized that she was asking if she was qualified.
“You understand your human mortals. You have leadership experience, training, and skills. You have vision and the ability to turn that vision into action. And, you have suffered, much like others have and will suffer. You have a sympathetic ear, a strong will, a willing, adaptable mind, and a firm hand.”
“Wow, interesting inventory there.” She laughed. Then she sobered. “Are you really offering this to me? Me? Michelle Wilhelm?”
His one word reply resounded through her. “Yes.”
“I have to think about it. I will get back to you.” With that, Michelle disappeared from the Astral Plane, and he felt her reappear at her cottage in northern Minnesota where this entire situation all began some months ago. As he watched her there, she waved her hand and Sadie, her ever faithful and vexing canine companion, appeared at Michelle’s side. Sadie wagging her tail as she said, “I missed you.”
Comprehension that dawned in his eyes and his mind told him that he had made the right choice. She wouldn’t rush into this expecting the power to be its own reward. She would take her responsibilities seriously, and work diligently for the betterment of her people. But, while she didn’t say no, she didn’t say yes, either. For the first time in the billions of years of his entire existence, he knew anxiety, and even a little fear, as he wondered what she would say, and when she would say it. And for the first time ever, he had no idea what would happen next.
To be continued...
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter Hartz lives in Minnesota with his wife and their daughter, as well as two crazy dogs nicknamed Moppet and Floppet. Peter has worked in Information Technology as a network engineer and, recently, as a network architect, for over twenty years.
Peter played Dungeons and Dragons in the late 1980s under the masterful direction of Little John, Alaric, and Elfsong the Dreamweaver, three Dungeon Masters that he met through dial-up bulletin board systems before the Internet was a thing. It was the gaming sessions with Alaric and Elfsong that were the sources of two of the characters in the story.
In 1988 Peter attended the Renaissance Academy for Theatrical Improvisation and started working as a street performer at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, where he met, pursued, and later fell in love the sweet, wonderful, kind, compassionate, and warm-hearted girl he married.
Her family had worked at the Renaissance Festival since the early 1970s, starting with her grandparents who made jewelry out of Swedish horse shoe nails. He worked in her family’s jewelry booth for over a decade (and occasionally got time off for good behavior and good sales numbers), selling ear threads and other fine and shiny things.