Chosen of Chaos (Eve of Destruction Book 1)

by Benjamin Medrano

  “Not that it matters,” Evelyn said, chuckling darkly. “Would have, could have… what does it matter? Time travel is insanity, and I wouldn’t want to do it, anyway. I was made into who I am. Even if letting anyone get close to me is… a touch on the foolish side. They’re vulnerable.”

  She paused as her HUD flashed, indicating she was almost to the ley line, and Evelyn slowed down, looking down at the ground below her.

  It wasn’t anything that impressive, at least not compared to everything she’d seen along the way. The icy landscape didn’t look any different than anything else in the area, which faintly amused Evelyn. That was the problem with ley lines, she supposed, they were rarely where someone could see them.

  “Now then… I’ll want to push it toward them. There’s no way they could anchor it if I push it the other way.” Evelyn murmured, descending slowly. Reaching out mentally, she found the enormous conduit of magical energy flowing through the ice, from the north pole of Valath to the south. It was so small compared to other planets she’d been on, but that was to be expected. Life was drawn to magic, or perhaps it was magic that was drawn to life, so it was typical for a planet like this one. After a few seconds of gauging the magic, Evelyn activated her comm, routing it through Daggerhound, the shuttle, then to the other two.

  “I’m in position. Are the two of you ready?” Evelyn asked.

  “We are.” Vaneryth replied, sitting on the floor next to Ilyra. They were on one of the lower levels of the facility, in a room that had been partially cleared so they could work.

  “I… I did wonder. Did you really have a spell to move a ley line all along? I haven’t seen anything like that in my learning programs,” Ilyra asked, leaning forward to look at the data pad they’d set up on the floor.

  Evelyn’s soft laughter came through loud and clear, then she spoke, a hint of teasing affection in her voice. “Ah, Lyra… you have a lot to learn, don’t you? How about I give you a basic lesson on the nature of magic from my perspective?”

  “That’d be wonderful!” Ilyra said, straightening suddenly, and she saw Elric perk up where he was positioned near the door. “Right, Vaneryth?”

  “It should be, yes,” the angel murmured, leaning forward.

  “Excellent. Now, listen closely, as I don’t intend to go over this again anytime soon,” Evelyn said, her voice smooth and calm. “There are three vital aspects to using magic, Lyra. First is knowledge. While anyone can attempt to pilot a shuttle from one place to another, the chances of them reaching their destination are poor. They’re likely to crash, and similarly, without the knowledge of how you are to make the magic work, you will not be able to pull it off, or at least not well.

  “Second is mana. Mana is the power, the fuel, the energy you need to break the rules of existence. The strength of a mage is directly based on how much mana they can control, and like a muscle, the more you use it, the more mana you can hold, and the more mana you can use at once. Much like the example of the shuttle, without enough mana, even if you know how to reach your destination, if you do not have the fuel, you won’t get there,” Evelyn paused for a moment, then added wryly, “I have an unfair advantage where all of these are concerned, of course. However, the last vital component is your will. It is what allows you to take your knowledge and impose it upon the magic, how you can force reality to change at your whim. Without a strong will, your magic will never reach its full potential. These three things in concert are what allows magic to reach its full heights.”

  “Um, alright, but… what about gestures, diagrams, chants… all of that sort of thing?” Ilyra asked, frowning and blinking, as what Evelyn said seemed to contradict a lot of what she’d learned so far. She’d always heard that the incantations were vital to casting spells, as well as the precision of the gestures.

  “Unnecessary. They’re tools, Lyra. Magic is a tool of the mind, and an incantation is a method of focusing the mind and will. Similarly, diagrams and gestures do the same thing, except in the case of enchanters, who are engraving their spells into the fabric of the world. A mage who has an intricate incantation that they believe will assist them in casting a spell will be more powerful simply because it sharpens their will for each segment of the spell. It’s much like the martial artists who accompany magical effects with shouts, that very act helps them focus their power. It’s unnecessary… though I admit an incantation helps even me. It adds, oh… perhaps five percent more power to my spells, at a rough estimate?” Evelyn explained, sounding slightly more amused, now. “All that said, if it works for you, use it. Just don’t allow yourself to be shackled by them. It’s good to learn how to use your magic without incantations or gestures.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Ilyra assured her, looking at Vaneryth, who had a smile playing across her lips. Ilyra wondered what amused her so much.

  “Good. Now, make certain your anchor is in place, then let me know once it’s solid. I don’t want to rip it out by accident,” Evelyn said, her voice turning brisk.

  “Alright,” Ilyra said, meeting Vaneryth’s gaze. The woman nodded, raising her hands, and they started to chant softly.

  It took a couple of seconds for them to match their cadence, as well as to merge the flow of their mana, but that was why they’d practiced earlier. Streamers of mana flowed together, forming into a shape much like what Evelyn had described the anchor as earlier. It looked like a shimmering silver spike, even if it didn’t have physical substance to it. A few more seconds passed as it grew more defined and solid… then it was ready. Ilyra inhaled, then gestured downward sharply.

  The spike flew downward, vanishing through the floor, but she felt the vibration as it struck the ley line. It wasn’t a physical sensation, rather a mental one, and she shivered slightly. After a few seconds it passed, and she felt the spike cautiously.

  “The anchor is in place, Evelyn,” Vaneryth said after a few seconds.

  “Excellent. Brace yourselves, this could be interesting,” Evelyn said, and Ilyra’s eyes widened.

  “Uh, I thought that this shouldn’t cause anything too bad on this world?” she protested.

  “It shouldn’t, but… this is magic, not a science,” Evelyn replied. “Here we go!”

  Evelyn took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she reached deep inside her body, pulling out ropes of mana, rather than the threads she usually used. When one was dealing with ley lines, there were only two choices. Subtlety, and brute force. She didn’t usually have the patience for the former, and she didn’t want to deal with long periods on Valath. So, she reached down and gripped the ley line, wrapping her magic around it firmly.

  The ley line quivered as her magic touched it. Evelyn liked to think that it was shuddering in anxiety, but she knew that probably wasn’t the case. No, she settled in and focused, her eyes closed, and every muscle in her body tensed as she mentally began to push.

  It didn’t want to move. It really, really didn’t want to move, it was comfortable where it was, and all the tributary ley lines were helping anchor the line in place, much like the root system of a gigantic tree. However, if Evelyn had learned one thing over her years alive, it was that nothing was immovable. There was only a question of how much force it would take, and after the tenth second of it resisting her, she lost patience… and the ropes surged, mana flooding out of her in waves that turned into rivers of mana, and she spoke aloud.

  “Fine, if you’re going to be difficult, I suppose I’ll just have to use more force,” Evelyn said, opening her eyes as she dug her feet into the ice, and she pushed with every bit of force she could muster.

  The ley line tried to resist for only a moment more, at which point she felt the kilometers-thick ice sheet below her… fracture slightly. Then, at long last, it moved. Quickly.

  “Oops.” Evelyn murmured.

  Ilyra didn’t feel anything for a few seconds… but when Evelyn spoke, her eyes widened, and she opened her mouth, just in time for the first wave of mana to hit her, and she stagge
red despite being sitting down.

  “By the gods…” Ilyra gasped, as a flood of power rolled over her, rocking what felt like the entire building as warmth permeated her body.

  The power flowed over all of them, and she saw even Elric pale, holding onto the door frame, and a physical shudder rocked the building. Ilyra wasn’t sure what it was, but the next moment the magic faded, and something hit the spike. Hard.

  “Ack!” Ilyra yelped, pouring her mana into the spike, which was trembling as something pulled on it. “Ryth? What’s—”

  “I don’t know!” the angel exclaimed, quickly pouring her own mana into the spell as well. “It’s… it’s like she pulled it instead, and I don’t know if we can stop it!”

  “We have to!” Ilyra said, pouring every scrap of energy she had into the spell, as the ley line writhed beneath them, like whipping willow strands that were caught in the midst of a tempest.

  The magic was yanking and pulling, and it took everything she had to keep the spike intact, as the magic flooding through the line ripped at it, trying to tear the spell apart even as she watched. Ilyra’s heart was stuck in her throat, and as the last mana flowed out of her, she was sure they were going to fail, that the spell was going to end and… then the ley line stopped struggling, simply shivering a little, and Ilyra blinked, staring downward for a few seconds, then fell backward, somewhat limp as the spell dissipated.

  “What… what happened?” Ilyra asked breathlessly, her chest heaving.

  “Sorry about that. It seems I pushed a little too hard. When I finally managed to force it out of its channel, well… the ley line almost flipped polarity, and it snapped to the opposite side of the planet. There must be another channel there,” Evelyn replied, a hint of embarrassment in her voice. “I didn’t realize it would do that. I’m making a mental note not to do it that way again… assuming I ever have to move a ley line in the future.”

  “You… moved the ley line to the other side of the planet.” Elric said, looking at the two of them in shock. “What did you do?”

  “Ah, you’re there, Elric? Like I said, I pushed a little too hard. The ley line was stuck in its channel, so I had to force it out, but once I did so, I didn’t pull back quickly enough. That gave enough force to send it flying around to the other side of the world. I may have also cracked the ice in this area… I can’t tell how deep the fracture goes,” Evelyn said briskly. “In either case, as long as the ley line is still beneath your building, I believe that’s a successful job done! I’ll head back now.”

  The line went dead, and Ilyra stared at Vaneryth, then at Elric. She considered carefully for a few seconds, then nodded, speaking quietly. “Alright. I’ve made up my mind. If I can reach even a tenth of her power before dying of old age, I’ll be happy.”

  “That seems like a reasonable goal,” Vaneryth agreed, smiling tiredly as she picked up the data pad. “Why don’t we go get one of those meals? That took a rather lot out of me.”

  “Good idea!” Ilyra said, and climbed to her feet, with Elric simply gaping at them in disbelief.

  Control kept an eye on the planet from orbit, just as she’d been instructed to. Nothing was outside of the parameters that had been set, though what had happened would have caused different reactions from her if it’d been on a more populated world.

  The ship’s sensors had registered the cracking of the ice around Evelyn quite clearly, and the fissures from the crack had widened somewhat as they moved north and south, until eventually they passed the site of another structure on Valath’s surface. While the fissure hadn’t swallowed the structure, some damage had been dealt in the process, it had caused a landed starship to fall into it. Then the ley line snapping back into position had caused the fissure to half-close again.

  By Control’s best estimates, the ship had been compromised to the point it would never fly again. On the other hand, it wasn’t her problem, and she hadn’t been told to report it. So she simply logged the information, and ignored the panicking bootleggers who’d lost one of only two ships they had.

  Chapter 31

  “We’re here to buy that?” Star demanded, her gaze practically glued to the screen as they approached the shipyard.

  On the screen was the Halcyon Yards, which had an entire complex entirely to themselves, orbiting Trealla, one of the rocky planets in the Reth system. One planet had a habitable atmosphere, but the rest were either gas giants or what amounted to large moons that orbited the star on their own. In this case, Trealla was pocked with countless craters, since it was part of the debris belt that’d formed during the star’s formation.

  More importantly, the yards had the starships they’d completed on display, and the ones she could see were stunning. There were a few dozen sleek, elegant corvettes, each perfect for crews of five to twenty people, depending on how they’d been outfitted, and from there the ships grew larger. There were a pair of frigates, a single lonely destroyer, the ship they’d come to get, then a battleship and even what she thought was a dreadnaught. The sheer amount of glittering filigree on the enormous ship was ridiculous in her opinion, though she couldn’t pick out the weapon mounts easily due to it.

  The ship they’d come for, though… it was gorgeous. The primary sections of the hull were ivory white, almost like a ceramic of some variety, and there were several windows that she could see here and there. The main sources of gold were the trim around the windows and forming long, curving lines on its hull. She couldn’t see it fully from the angle she was at, and without a proper sense of scale, like from a person doing a spacewalk, she couldn’t tell just how big it was, but it was certainly a large ship.

  “That’s right. Though you’re going to have to look less awed once we’re aboard the yards,” Fya said, grinning back at Star in amusement. “If you don’t, they’ll start wondering if we’re really as wealthy as we’re making out.”

  The djinn looked little like her usual self. Instead of the relatively wild mane of hair, she’d combed it out straight, and her hair was a pretty shade of electrum, while her eyes were a deep blue. It startled Star just how pretty she was, and how normal Fya looked when wearing the white empire dress she’d pulled out of a closet. She’d also taken on a more poised, controlled attitude seemingly effortlessly.

  “I am poor, though. I have no idea about you, though,” Star said, shrugging in embarrassment.

  “Wealthier than you, and I’ll leave it at that,” Fya replied, and glanced around the shuttle cabin, tapping her upper lip. “Still, you both cleaned up nicely enough, and I think we should be able to play the part.”

  “If I’m being honest, I was most concerned about you, Fya,” Zelirana replied, examining the djinn once again, almost as if she was suspicious. “I thought you might be a bit… unsuited for the role. I’m glad to see that my worries were misplaced.”

  The succubus was wearing a suit that looked startlingly good on her, though she appeared to be a raven-haired human now. It was a suit Star would’ve expected to see on a male butler, not on a woman, but it looked good enough on Zelirana that Star wondered if it would work well for her as well. On the other hand, she and Moon had been given outfits that were nice, but plain enough that Fya would stand out like a shining star… which was the entire point, of course.

  “Ah, but that’s because you didn’t meet me when I was working as Milady’s maid,” Fya replied, grinning broadly. “I had to play the role properly, of course. I couldn’t ruin her reputation, and that meant that I curbed my excesses in any public space and made certain to present the proper image for someone in her service. It was important, so I did it.”

  “Oh. I… had wondered,” Moon said, pausing for a few seconds, then asked. “Is the way you are now what you’re really like?”

  “Eh, it’s a phase. I’m sure I’ll go through others while you’re around, but I’m in an enthusiastic phase right now,” Fya said breezily. “It depends a great deal on what I’ve been through lately, as well as what I want to do. I am p
leased about having a harem to manage, though… it’s a dream I’ve had for a long time. One more thing to check off the list!”

  “A dream?” Star asked, blinking in confusion.

  “I believe I can answer that,” Zelirana said, smiling slightly. “Djinn society is… odd. They tend to have harems as a matter of course. Men with dozens of female djinni, women with dozens of male djinni, or more. The most powerful of them tend to have whichever they prefer as harem members, and it’s just part of their society.”

  “Except when some of us lose bets, have our harems disbanded, and are imprisoned in a lamp for a millennium or two,” Fya chimed in.

  Star stared at her, as did Moon, and they both blinked. Then Moon demanded, “You got imprisoned in a lamp for a thousand years because you lost a bet?”

  “Uh-huh. How else do you think it happens?” Fya replied, grinning widely at them. “I mean… you think djinni who can grant wishes get imprisoned in lamps without allowing it? I guess it could happen, but not often.”

  “I… had no idea,” Moon said, looking at Star, who shrugged in response.

  “Don’t look at me. I never studied djinn society.” Star replied dryly. “I had enough trouble with history.”

  Fya giggled at that, then cut herself off, straightening and putting a more severe expression on her face as she cleared her throat. “Damn, it’s going to be hard to act with proper propriety after this long. But needs must… and I can always have fun once we’re done. I wonder if we can find enough gelatin for a swimming pool…”

  “Err… I’ve heard of things like that, you’d have to replace practically the entire pump system afterward,” Star volunteered, blanching slightly.

  “Really? Well, I’ll come up with something else,” the djinn said, sounding slightly disappointed. “Now, let’s just relax a bit, shall we? We’ll be aboard the station soon.”