by Joshua Cook
Heather had been smart to use the geas. Cendan vaguely remembered reading that in folklore you couldn’t force the person under a geas to go too far, which was why she hadn’t tried to force Jasmine to get her inside. Push too hard and the geas breaks, like all those hypnotic suggestion things. You could suggest they stop smoking, or overeating, but try to get them to attack someone and it wouldn’t work; pushed too far.
“Ok, we will make her prove it. But how? Form a Bridge here? Can that even be done? And then have us go look at the map?” Cendan asked confused.
Jasmine shrugged. “Yeah, I guess; I mean...” Jasmine’s face lit up. “Hey, our phones don’t work as phones in the headquarters, right? But that doesn’t mean I can’t record the map while she’s doing whatever here. That way, we can both see it live, and then see the footage of the map. What about EVA? Can it check as well?”
Cendan nodded. “Yeah, she can.” A quick mental ask – “Right?” – to EVA, followed up with only felt like a thumbs up, confirmed the thought. Though, with a touch of amusement, as Jasmine continued to call EVA an ‘it’.
“Ok, we have a plan. Let’s get proof first, and then if so, we can let her see the map, regardless of what the brooding boss has to say about it.”
Approaching Heather, Cendan noticed that, for all her attitude, she was a remarkably attractive woman. Flaming natural red hair, except for that blue streak; grey eyes; pretty.
EVA poked him, “Be careful, Cendan. There’s enough magic swirling around her that I’m not sure what she’s doing. I can’t tell if she even really looks that way.”
Mentally shaking himself, Cendan looked Heather in the eye, receiving an arched eyebrow and a slight upturned smile in return. Red lips, those. Cendan wondered what it would be like to…
“Stop,” he croaked out.
Heather laughed. “Stop what?”
Cendan fought his attraction and forced his eyes closed. That was better; he could think now.
“We want proof. Prove that the Bridges can still be open and the map doesn’t see it, and we will work with you. If not, we go back inside and you find your way back to wherever it is you came from.”
Keeping his eyes closed, Cendan could only hear her response.
“Really? Keeping your eyes closed? Fine. Whatever. I’ll prove it.”
He felt a hand squeeze his upper arm and hoped that was Jasmine.
“You can open your eyes now, she’s doing something.” Jasmine whispered to him. “She’s not looking at you, at least.”
Cendan cracked his eyes, and through the narrow slit of his vision, he saw that the witch, Heather, had turned her back to him and was holding her fetish – or focus – up in the air with both hands. He still felt an attraction to her, but it was far less now.
“EVA, why didn’t you stop her from doing whatever it was she was doing? I could barely think there for a few seconds.” Cendan mentally queried.
“Sorry Cendan, but I couldn’t. She was amplifying your already existing attraction to her. That makes it almost impossible for me to stop.”
Cendan didn’t quite understand. “Already existing attraction? I’m not attracted to her!”
EVA gave off what only could be an air of amusement. “You say not, but even looking at her now, when she’s not doing anything, your blood pressure has risen. There’s been dilation of blood vessels, and your body temp has risen half a degree.”
Cendan muttered, “Nonsense,” earning himself a quick look from Jasmine.
“What did you say?”
Cendan just tapped the side of his head in response. Jasmine nodded and returned her attention to Heather. Cendan could feel something. It was hard to put into words, however. He could feel the semi familiar twinge, or pull, of the transition when one moves from this world to another. Regardless, if it’s the Echo World, or just entering or leaving the Lair. But this was also different; rawer and edgier. He concentrated, and with his new ability to ‘see’ magic was stunned to see the motion that was normally hidden.
Thousands of the little sparks of magic were swarming past him and Jasmine; maybe millions. They were swirling together in front of Heather, and gathering speed as they went, round and round. He could also see lines of those sparks connecting the witch to the disc being formed before her. It was one of the most stunning displays of light he’d ever seen. No, not light, he corrected himself; magic. Jasmine couldn’t see this, at least right now she couldn’t.
“Can you feel it Jasmine?” Cendan asked quietly.
Jasmine nodded. “It’s strange; it’s like when we enter and leave the headquarters, but…”
Cendan nodded. “Yeah, I thought the same thing. I wish you could see this.”
Jasmine looked at him strangely. “What do you mean see it? It’s right in front of me.”
Cendan shook his head. “No, I mean... See the magic. Hold on.” Cendan reached out and took Jasmine’s shoulder and concentrated.
A gasp escaped Jasmine “What did you do!”
Cendan felt a thrill; he had done it! She was seeing the raw magic. He had done something with magic, on purpose, and it had worked.
“I seem to have shared my vision of magic.” Cendan replied. He felt oddly proud of this little victory.
Jasmine didn’t say anything, but he could see the look of awe on her face. It was an amazing sight. The sparks slew flew past them, tiny bright sparks of light; blue, green, red, all colors. The disc that was forming was spinning quite fast now and beginning to cave in the middle.
“Your phone!” Cendan whispered to Jasmine. “We didn’t set it up!”
Jasmine started and nodded. He felt the contact slip as she quickly ran down the stairs to go back into the headquarters, and to the map room. Cendan half watched her go, but kept an eye on the Bridge that had almost formed. The sparks had tapered off to nothing now; just the disc was there. The edges were starting to take on what for him was the customary circuits and connectors that he always saw on the edges of a Bridge. He was sure the fact that he and the others always saw them differently meant something, but what, he didn’t know.
He half wondered what this witch, Heather, saw the Bridges as. Though it really didn’t matter; at least as far as he knew. Slowly but surely, the Bridge came into focus, and the long tunnel formed making that connection to the Echo world. Then it was done, Heather lowered her focus, and turned toward him smirking.
“There, happy?”
Cendan nodded. He was impressed though more than a little concerned.
“Where is it going to? Are we going to have anything coming out?”
Heather shook her head. “Shouldn’t. I can’t make promises, but I opened it up into the Great Desert on the Echo, basically nothing there.” Cendan’s blank look must have given away his lack of understanding. “You people really know nothing about what you’ve been fighting? You’re this blind? I’m amazed you survived this long.”
Heather took her focus and, with her hands, twisted the wood, or at least it looked that way. With a snap, the Bridge closed, and the magic faded away. Cendan could see the ghost of the sparks fade from his vision, and within a minute, all that was left was a slightly thicker area of the always present magic around them.
“I know you’ve been to the Echo World, Cendan. You, however, only went to the part where the Slyph is the most active. Even in all the years she’s had, only a quarter of the place has life in it. The vast majority is a sandy wasteland of nothing. A few odd areas where…” Cendan noted that the witch paused and didn’t continue. “It’s just empty. No plants; no creatures; nothing.”
Jasmine appeared at that moment, a grim expression on her face.
“Nothing. The map was still and quiet. Not a damn thing on it. If I hadn’t seen the Bridge forming, I would have not believed it.” Mouth set in a hard line Jasmine looked around. “She got rid of the Bridge?”
Cendan nodded. He really hoped that this Heather person had been wrong. This was shaping up to be one hell of a fun
day. He’d just wanted to do stuff in the Garden, explore what some of the plants were, what they did, that sort of thing. He refused to believe that they hadn’t been planted there for a reason though what it was escaped him for now.
All the journals in the Maker wing were helping of course, but searching paper for things he needed to know was time consuming. The information dump from Oakheart into his focus was far faster, but it was limited to the things Oakheart knew, or could remember at the time he put it all in there. Which, after a thousand plus years of being the Slyph’s plaything, wasn’t a very complete picture. Some of it was clear and precise, like anything dealing with EVA. Other parts were pretty weak, or even nonexistent. It was frustrating; he had been so sure at first that the key would hold everything he needed.
And now this: the map apparently broken, most likely in the attack that killed Sal; and a witch, an outsider who could work magic, giving information and offering to help. And Marcus seemed to be getting more bitter and angry by the day and placing all that anger and bitterness on Cendan. Add in the information about Grellnot, and the warning from the Elf King that his twice damned bargain was remembered, and Cendan was not having the best day.
Chapter 4
“Well, do we have her look at it?” Cendan asked Jasmine. “It’s going to be your call, Jasmine. Marcus will lose it either way, but it might be better if it didn’t come from me.” Pausing for a moment, Cendan let out a long breath. “Marcus is getting a bit dark as of late.”
Jasmine didn’t answer at first, her eyes locked onto the witch who was tapping her focus against her leg with a decidedly annoyed expression on her face.
“He’s just a worrier, Cendan. Marcus is a good guy. As for the witch, I really don’t know. Can’t you figure it out? I mean, it’s a Maker thing right? You’re a Maker.”
Cendan’s shoulders fell a bit. “Yeah, but I have no idea how long it might take me to figure it out. Remember, most of the journals in that room are old, really old. And half the time they don’t make a hell of a lot of sense until you read something else in some other journal. I think most of the authors sort of expected whoever picked them up to have a solid firm grounding in being a Maker already. Not someone like me, with a highly incomplete picture of all of it.
So yeah, could I fix it without her? Maybe, given enough time. But do we have the time? If Bridges are being formed, and we don’t have a clue where or when, and there’s a war going on between Grellnot and the Slyph, can we afford to wait for me to figure it out?” Cendan hated feeling this way, frustrated and unsure.
“I know. That’s the only reason I’m even considering this,” Jasmine answered. “I just… Everything I was ever taught, everything I ever even heard about people like her – those who deal with the echo world, outside of us, outside of the Bridgefinders – screams not to trust her. But we are flying blind here. What’s worth more, the legacy of what I was taught, or figuring out what happened to the map?” Jasmine leaned against the wall, her eyes fixed on Heather, who smirked back.
“She knows it too Cendan. She knows that for all basic purposes, she has me, us, in a hard place. Marcus would scream at me to get rid of her and never even think about it again. You are on the other end, I think. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you lean towards letting her in. And I’m stuck in the damn middle.” Jasmine glanced at her watch. “Getting late. Marcus will be done brooding soon. He usually eats in the next hour, creature of habit that man. If we are going to do this, let’s do this now.”
Cendan was somewhat surprised. “Really? You’re going to let her look at the map?” He had wanted her to, if only so he could watch this witch do her thing, and try to learn from it. He already had some ideas on things after watching her form a Bridge. He figured, though, that Jasmine, though more reasonable than Marcus had ever been, wouldn’t go against her background, her training.
Jasmine slow nodded. “Yes, though I may regret the hell out of this. Let’s tell her, get this done, and get her out. If all goes well, Marcus may not even know. He can only tell where we are in the headquarters, and that’s only if he’s looking for us. Pray he doesn’t start to look.”
Jasmine stood and gestured to Heather, who for once looked somewhat surprised. As she came over to Cendan and Jasmine, however, her seemingly normal expression of slight condescension returned.
“So, I take it you Finders came to your senses and are going to let me help?” Heather asked as she joined them at the head of the stairs.
Jasmine said nothing, but rolled her eyes in response.
“Yeah, but this is a quick thing. In, you do what you can to check the map, and then out. There’s someone we’d like to avoid.” Cendan paused, then continued, “He doesn’t like… your kind.”
Heather laughed, a rather melodic one Cendan thought, then caught himself. Another glamour? A trick to attract his attention? EVA hadn’t said anything, but then again, EVA hadn’t said much about any of this, unless he asked her directly. He reached out with his new sight, but didn’t see anything disturbing the flow of magic around her. Maybe she just had a really nice laugh.
“That would be Marcus. Yes, I know who he is. You didn’t think I came here without doing my homework, did you? I know all about all of you, or at least as much as I could find out. Marcus’s feelings about my kind are very well known. Even without talking to any resources on the Echo World. We, who are outside your little club, do talk to each other.” Heather grinned at them both. “Well come on, I’m actually interested to see this place I’ve heard about.”
Jasmine motioned Heather towards the stairs, leading the way herself. Cendan followed behind them both. This way, at least the witch couldn’t make a break for it once they were inside; at least not without having to go through one or both of them. Cendan knew that it might not be much of a deterrent, but it was the best they had. And if Marcus did show up, one of them might be able to run enough interference to not have him figure things out. Mentally, he wasn’t liking the Branches that this choice gave him – way too many ended up with bad things happening – but none of the choices were very good.
They stood in front of the barrier, the wall that required them to use their foci to open. Heather said nothing until Jasmine raised her focus and the wall melted away. Air escaped the witch then, a soft gasp of surprise. Jasmine stepped through the opening, followed by Heather, and then Cendan. As soon as they were in the hallway of the lair, Heather leaned forward and caught her breath.
“That was impressive. And more than a little surprising.” Head raised, the witch took in her surroundings. “This place, it’s not on earth, is it? I can tell; the flow here, the magic, it’s stronger. Different, but stronger.”
Cendan nodded, somewhat surprised that she could figure that out so fast. Magic to her, though, was second nature. She knew it.
“Yes, based on what we know, it was built on what amounts to a huge chunk of rock somehow in between our world and the Echo world.”
Heather closed her eyes, and just as quickly opened them again. “You mean the Slyph’s world. Yes, I can feel it.”
A sharp gesture by Jasmine ended their conversation as they followed her in silence. Cendan watched Heather as she took the place in; the various light sources, the many and varied doors, all of it. The whole time she nodded with a small smile on her face, which he hoped was a sign of some actual approval. Finally, two long hallways later, Jasmine pointed to the door that led to the map.
“Let me go in first, just in case.” Jasmine whispered as she straightened her jacket and stepped into the map room. “All clear.”
Jasmine’s voice drifted out to them in the hall. Breath escaped Cendan in a long exhale. He hadn’t even been aware he was holding it. Heather followed Jasmine, with Cendan right behind.
“Here’s the map. Do what you need to do, but be fast.” Cendan pointed to the huge wooden map taking up one wall. He still couldn’t get too close to the thing; there was still that resistance to him. It was like mag
nets sliding apart. He could force contact, but it didn’t like it. Must be a Maker thing, he thought, making a mental note to look it up.
Heather’s face lit up at the sight of the thing. “You all may be a bunch of ignorant idiots, but man, you come from some insanely talented and powerful magic users. This thing is incredible!”
“EVA, can you tell if Marcus is heading this way?” Cendan queried EVA. She’d been oddly silent since the earlier interactions with Heather, and this was a way to test it.
“Yes... I think.” EVA’s voice sounded distant and had a distinct tinny sound which was odd for her.
“Everything ok? You sound odd to me.” Cendan still wasn’t used to this mental communication.
“Yes… but, there seems to be some odd interference with our link. I’m checking it out.” And with that, EVA’s presence in his mind faded into the background.
“I have EVA monitoring Marcus, or at least trying to. But let’s be fast in here.” Cendan waved Heather forward. “Go ahead.” He, however, paused and focused on her with his new ability. If nothing else, at least it was seeing how magic came together and worked. His new vision unfolded in his mind, and he could take in the view. As usual, here in the lair, the normal bright dots of magic from his world were mixed with the threads of magic that seemed to be the way it worked in the Slyph’s world.
He had wondered about that often: why it looked different. The only theory that made any sense to him was that magic was thicker, stronger on the Slyph’s world. More creatures used it, and it seemed to him to be more powerful. The magic of his world was not as strong, but there were a lot less using it at any one time, therefore one could draw on more of it, given enough time.