by Mel Todd
I looked him dead in the eye. "No. So I need to work. If I have four months, the more I work, the more I'll be able to save and lessen what I need to do once I start. We do get summers off, right?" I hadn't thought to ask Jo that as she had started just this fall.
"Technically you can, though most take some classes to try and get through sooner. Every program and school is slightly different. You'll need to talk it over with admissions."
I nodded. "We need to catch this guy soon, then. Wait." I thought about the money and gave a bitter laugh. "It just dawned on me, I'm making more sitting here doing nothing than working as an EMT."
Alixant blew out a breath. "Let's get this guy first, then we'll talk. But about your planar rips? I've asked an expert to come in and work with you. While Spirit can seal them, Chaos can open rips, at least small ones. I'd like you to get some experience learning how to close them." His phone chimed and he pulled it up. "Oh good, my expert is here. Hopefully she'll be able to let you practice on a small scale and then maybe you'll have a chance at the larger ones if it comes to that." He rose as he spoke and headed to the door. "I'll be right back."
I sat there, staring at nothing as I tried to wrap my head around it. I needed to do some budgeting and figure out how much I needed. And here I thought I'd been past that. It had a lot to do with my reluctance. Another four to five years of scrimping and scraping didn't sound fun at all.
"Come on in, I'm sure Cori will be delighted to meet you." I heard Alixant talking and I turned in my chair and froze as I saw the woman we'd run into Friday smiling at me like she'd won the lottery.
"Oh, we've met, but I'm delighted for the opportunity to get to know her better," Indira all but purred.
Chapter 37
China's emperor is a merlin, proof he is the son of heaven. Their society is still feudal in structure, though very technically advanced, and has one of the few known non-Earth equivalent familiars. The Dragon of China is the familiar of the Qin Dynasty Emperor and when it comes time for him to die or he is dying, the familiar selects the successor from the available merlins in that family. Oddly it has worked without flaw for the last five hundred years. ~ History of Magic
"One of the skills Chaos mages have under Entropy is the creation of planar rips, though to do more than make a micro-rip you usually need to be at least an archmage," Indira's soft silky voice purred. It was driving me nuts. I suspected that it was supposed to turn me on, make me interested, or captivate me. In all honesty it made my skin crawl.
"Okay, but what is the purpose of making the planar tears?" I asked. We were outside the office building in a nice patio-like area that was rather big and spacious. It made me wish we had an area like this in the apartment complex. Carelian was trying to climb a tree and I kept glancing at him. I was worried if he got too far up he'd get trapped and I'd have to go rescue him. Since they were Bartlett pears, they would not hold my weight.
"Practical? None that I know of," Indira admitted. Her full name was Indira Amira Humbert, a widow, and full-time professor at the college. The way she had announced she was a widow unfortunately made me think of black widow spiders, and I worried she had me on the menu for her next romantic meal. "We often do it in laboratory settings to measure and run experiments. We compare most of those against readings at Area 51 to see if anything can be gleaned."
When she wasn't trying the vamp act, she had a lot to say and I suspect made an interesting lecturer.
"All of this I'll learn in class?"
She pursed her lips and shrugged. "Maybe. It depends on what you study. But since you have a touch of Chaos…" Her hand drifted up towards my temple and I pulled back, more out of instinct than anything else. "You may find that you are interested in what you can do with that ability."
A meow caught my attention and I looked up to find Carelian staring at us, blazing green eyes watching us from the leaves of the tree. "Don't get stuck up there. I don't want to have to try and rescue you."
~I never get stuck.~ The offended comment rang in my mind and I blinked, looking up at him, my eyes narrowing.
He's smarter than we think. I'm going to have to watch him.
"You haven’t been around familiars much, have you?" Indira’s comment pulled my attention away. I looked at her, taking in her pose, more artful and less obvious than Jo, but still a pose.
"No. Have you?" I was curious, and maybe she'd relax a little. Anything to quit this weird game I didn't know how to play.
"My husband. He had a familiar, an avian." She glanced up at Carelian and smiled. "Yours is very young, truly the kitten it appears. Don't be worried if it seems young or rather quiet. As he gets older, though he won't age quite as fast as a real animal, I suspect you'll wish he would be quiet more."
~Humph,~ Carelian muttered. I looked up, but he was already moving away, tail twitching as he stalked something I couldn't see.
"Back to planar rips. While we proved that magic came into this world by the rips, and they have a tendency to appear and disappear, the three at Area 51 are the only known semi-permanent ones and one of the few places where rips to all three planes are present."
The way she said that had me grabbing my phone and texting Chris a question. *What were the classes of the mages?* I had a niggling theory that scrabbled at the back of my mind. Nothing concrete yet, but it would be interesting. *and the counts of mages at the park, I mean how many of each class?*
"But they monitor those constantly,” I said. “Can't you just research on those?"
"They are researching them. The OMO doesn't share easily, but some information is available. They also don't let scientists in often." She shrugged, an elegant movement that called to mind Elsba. It was just as fluid and somehow more discomfiting.
"So back to me. You're going to create rips and I'm going to seal them?"
"Essentially. The rips I'll create are small and only to one plane at a time." She lowered her eyelids, peering up at me through her long dark lashes. "Then, you seal them closed with your magic." She purred out the words while making a languid snap of her fingers. The motion had her leaning forward to provide a view of her generous cleavage, and hints of a candy red bra.
I didn't have any issue with undergarments. I wore my own and preferred the pretty lacy ones. But other than doing the laundry and pulling out what Jo wore, which were either plain and practical or fancy and barely there, looking at other women's bras held no attraction for me. I mean, I wasn't disgusted, I just didn't care.
But this time I did. Her actions were making my skin crawl.
"Just think, I open, you close." Her purr and innuendo-laden voice made me snap.
Figuratively and literally.
"Okay, enough. You are creeping me the hell out. Stop it or I'm gone." I had pulled back and was about to leave as her whole attitude made me just more uncomfortable than being kissed by Danny Lane as a freshman.
She sat up, blinking at me, then in what seemed like magic, her whole body changed. She straightened, her shoulders firming, becoming stronger, the softness of her face hardening, and her gaze becoming more direct, losing its sensual nature. I stared at the woman sitting in front of me. While still dressed in the same clothes, she came across as a completely different person.
"Not into women, or just me?" Her voice was frank and remotely curious. Gone was the soft sensual tilt of words or the hint of innuendo.
"Both? Either?" I stammered out, still trying to figure out what I'd seen.
"Oh well. The information was you were living with a known lesbian, so we figured you were probably lesbian or bi." Indira tilted her head looking at me. "But you really are just friends, aren't you?"
"Yes. Why?" Now I had no idea what was going on. Who was this woman? I glanced around for Carelian and tried to decide if I should run. I should have spent more time practicing magic, and not just reading about it. My hair had been growing like crazy, but I hadn't thought of using any of it.
She gave me a wry smile and settled back
on the bench. "Merlins are a small group. We talk about each other a lot, but you are of particular interest. I was asked if I could seduce you since they thought you preferred women. Obviously, that didn't work. I'm sure someone will ask Steven to try his hand at some point." Her half shrug didn't bug me this time, it looked like a shrug, not a sexual movement.
"Why would someone want you to seduce me?" I felt like I was asking stupid questions, but none of this made sense. "And why think I was a lesbian?" I was oddly insulted on Jo's behalf. She could do much better than me and the idea of Alixant trying to be sexy with me made me want to gag. I might be able to tolerate him but like him? I still didn't know.
"To control you, get you to bend to various groups’ interests more easily. But mostly to encourage you to give us access to the mansion." She rolled her shoulders. "Oh well. You really aren't my type anyhow. Your roommate prompted the preference speculation, that and no one had reported you drooling over Steven or Niall." Her smile was quick and full of white teeth. "I would love Steven to go through the paces. I bet he's very good." Her voice seemed more real this time and even while the idea did nothing for me, I could at least quirk a smile.
"And which mansion?" Something vague stuck in my mind but I couldn't pull it forward.
She shook her head. "Never mind. Just be aware you are of great interest to very many people. For now, though, planar rips." Indira spoke in a clear voice with a hint of a smile and all the posturing disappeared. I relaxed and even Carelian decided to show up and learn.
I opened my mouth to protest. I needed to know which interest group she represented, but before I could ask her about that, she snapped her fingers and I felt reality tear. I'd felt it before, I'd just not realized what those sensations meant. But now, seeing a tear in the reality of space and time so close to me I knew I'd been feeling the fabric of reality shred. The ripple of ice and the jab of pain in my skull. Quick, transient, I'd never paid that much attention before. Now I knew to pay very close attention.
Carelian went almost statue still sitting next to me, focused on the same tiny tear in reality. His ear twitching back and forth.
While I still wanted, needed, to follow up on all the questions her comments had raised, the little tear in reality demanded all my attention.
"What do you feel?" she asked, in a normal voice, thank the merlins.
"An icy feeling with a sharp stab that went away." I knew those were the sensations, but it didn't make much sense that I could sense tears.
"That sounds similar. Once you identify the feeling, you then link it to planar rips opening. Have you felt it before?"
I barely had to think about that. "Sure, I always assumed it was a headache. Swift stab of pain and then nothing. As long as I can remember."
Or since I emerged at twelve. That thought was bleak.
"Then you've been feeling planar rips appear for a long time. As far as anyone has reported, there is not any difference in sensation level between a tiny rip like that," she pointed at the rip in air between us, "and a major tear like what’s at Area 51. Which is good. If the sensations were comparable, anyone alive when those ripped open would have died on the spot."
A strange thought flitted across my mind: Maybe most spirit mages had this awareness, which is why we were so rare. I let the thought go, in favor of another one.
"You've seen those?"
She nodded, a shudder rippling through her body. "Yes. They feel like looking into gaping maws of hell, but—" Indira broke off and shook her head. "But it doesn't matter. Some day you can travel there yourself and decide what they mean. Now I want you to try and close that rip in space."
I had so many questions I wanted to ask. What happened if it stayed open? What was on the other side? Could I touch it? Reach through and experience the other planes?
Instead I went with what we seemed to be focused on—the here and now.
"How do I do that?"
She gave a wry smile. "I was afraid you would ask that. Here is what I've been told: reach out and feel the rip, feel the breadth and size of it, then you'll know what it will involve to seal it; how much your offering will be."
I lifted up my hand to touch it. Indira grabbed my wrist in a hard, tight grip even as Carelian growled. I didn't know if he growled at me or her.
"Touch it with your mind. Feel it. Touching it physically can have unforeseen side effects."
I swallowed and pulled my hand away. Then I stared at the rip, trying to figure out how to touch something with my mind.
I swear, if everything at college is this much mumbo jumbo, I'm going to go insane. At least the certification training was all concrete and nothing fuzzy wuzzy.
I couldn't feel it, not really, but the longer I stared at it, the more I could sense a hole. Kinda like when your tooth falls out. No matter what, your tongue gets drawn to the hole. I realized there was the same sort of sensation in my mind, to the right, where the stab of pain had come from. Something I wanted to seal up.
I started to ask how I would seal it, but I could see how. Well not really, but more sense it. There was a zipper, at least that was how my mind interpreted it. I found the tab of the zipper and pulled. I expected resistance, but instead there was a question of an offer. It felt like a question or a trade and I knew without having to think about it, it would cost me 4,321 molecules. Which would be about a quarter inch of a single strand of hair.
How in the world?
My stunned thought held me frozen and confused. But I remembered a question, this same feeling, asking me for the cost with the man up the ladder. Then I'd shoved it away, agreeing without thought, without paying attention to the feeling, to the question. I'd just given. Same thing with the murder ball. It had asked, but I'd batted it away, agreeing without paying attention.
My skin crawled, trying to figure out how could I have not paid attention. The feeling was so subtle, so shallow, that if I wasn't paying attention to the sensation, I'm not sure I would have even noticed. The cost was so low I would still just dismiss it.
I pulled my attention outward, my mental fingers still on the zipper of the portal and looked at Indira. "Is the agreement of the offering more noticeable the higher the cost?"
She gave me a half smile. "Good job. Most don't think about that until their senior year. Yes and no. If you have yards of hair and it will cost you half of it, a huge offering. It won't be as demanding, as if you have hair like yours and it will cost you an inch or so, not as much. When you offer living body parts you'll learn to agree to the offering and then direct it. There is an entire course in college about nothing more than how to offer and choose the offering."
"Huh," I muttered and pulled my attention back to that zipper. I sent an assent, and the zipper flowed with my thought, sealing the rip. It was so easy, and I'd expected to have to struggle.
I opened my eyes and the weird rip in the sky was gone. I poked at it mentally, then with my hand. Indira didn't stop me and when I was sure it was gone, I turned to look at her. "Can you make bigger ones? And do you control what plane they open up to?"
Her elegant eyebrow arched up at me and she shrugged. "Usually I just let whichever plane is closest to us open, but I keep them very small. Otherwise, there is the chance of something that isn't a familiar coming out."
"What? Does that happen? Things come out like that?"
Indira smirked at me - half amused and half pitying. "Where do you think unicorns and dragons come from?"
Chapter 38
While no mage can hold an elected office, they are often the advisors and temporary fill-ins for those offices, working around the law. With many mages staying in public service after their draft term is met, there is a disproportionate number of mages to non-magic users in the government halls. This is concerning to many and something OMO is taking seriously. ~ OMO Interview.
Try as I might, Indira avoided my every attempt to find out more about who wanted hooks into me. Instead she made me recognize, locate, and tell her the
plane of every rip she created. We'd been at it for two hours when a noise made me look up as Alixant headed our way.
He gave Indira a warm smile, and the siren appeared just for a second, smiling a sultry smile at him, then he turned to me. "We got the warrant approved, but go home. I'll call if they find anything but somehow I don't think it will be that easy."
With that, he was gone. And it wasn't that easy.
For the rest of the week nothing changed. They found nothing conclusive, no journal, no social media accounts gloating about his new power, but his apartment had shown signs of being vacated in a hurry . That left me once again twiddling my thumbs. Well, not quite as much. Alixant apparently thought the world of Indira and had me meeting with her Tuesday and Thursday, practicing the portal closing. I was getting better quickly and even the largest they dared to open, about six inches wide, didn't cost more than a single strand of hair. I didn't get why most people were so stingy with their magic.
Mondays I spent in the office and got caught up on their progress, which wasn't much, though Chris verified one thing for me. The three mages had each had a different class. When we looked at the park, only two of them had been Spirit mages, the rest almost split between Chaos and Order. From the interviews it looked like there had been about twenty percent Spirit at the convention.
My thoughts were that you needed all three to be dying, which is why it worked. It wasn't the number of people; it was the power and balance of the classes. No one disagreed, which didn't mean I was right, but it didn't mean I was wrong either.