A quick tug toppled them heavily on the stairs and the sound echoed through the house, but she ignored the noise. She released the magic and used the baseball bat to keep them down and knock them out before she tied them up.
A Meligornian male appeared at an upstairs doorway.
“What the— Who are you?”
“You need to call the authorities. These men were planning to kidnap your daughter.”
One of the would-be kidnappers groaned, and she swung the bat, connected with his head, and knocked him out.
“Hurry,” she urged when the man simply gaped at her. “I can’t keep hitting them like this.”
He disappeared into the room, and the scene faded.
This time, she didn’t fall. Instead, she somehow flew into the sunrise that reflected in a lake below her. The sound of children’s laughter reached her, and she smiled as the scene shifted and placed her on a hill overlooking what was clearly a local swimming spot.
Three children swam in the lake, two close to the dock and one farther out toward the lake’s center. Moving a little closer, she recognized the child furthest away as the little girl from the first test.
Stephanie walked down to the edge and watched them, wondering what could possibly happen out there worse than what she’d already prevented. That was when she saw it.
The ripples in the water started slowly and approached from the far shore. They formed a ‘V’ and grew in size as whatever beast created them moved toward the girl. She fumbled instinctively to remove her shoes, but it soon became clear that she was too far away and wouldn’t reach the child in time.
A shadow in the lake water showed her clearly that the beast had almost reached the little one. She shook her head, released her shoes, and straightened as she called the magic inside her.
Her gaze fixed on the child, she saw when the monster, its jaws wide, leapt from the water, ready to devour the screaming girl. She thrust her hands out and launched two huge bolts of magic at the creature.
One struck hard and drove it back while the other wound around it to hold it in one place so it couldn’t attack a second time.
“Help me,” the little girl screamed, and her arms flailed as she tried to swim and keep an eye on her attacker at the same time.
She was panicked and her uncoordinated movements did little to keep her afloat. If someone didn’t reach her soon, she’d drown. Stephanie pulled more energy into herself and raced down the hill to the lake.
Buoyed by her magic and her momentum, she skipped across the water. When she reached the child, she pulled the little one into her arms and carried her to the shore. As soon as her feet touched the grassy bank, she slowed and sat and enveloped the girl in her arms to comfort her.
After a moment, the child vanished, and she stood. The world appeared to fold in on itself and a dark blotch grew larger and seemed to move directly toward her. She closed her eyes and flinched, unsure of what to expect.
A tap on her nose brought her out of it, and she opened her eyes to see the ambassador and the Teacher looking at her. Lars was behind them, peering through the door, but he didn’t interfere. Melistar spoke first. “Tell me what your thought process was.”
Stephanie shook the tension from her shoulders. “The first test would have been easy to fix with magic—a quick healing and all done. But I remembered that simply because you can, does not mean you should. All children get scraped knees. It’s part of being a child, so I looked for a first aid kit.”
The woman nodded and gestured for her to continue, so she did. “For the second one, I used only enough magic to keep myself from being noticed until I could deal with the kidnappers without using magic. It was a little risky, but I didn’t need to use magic to stop them, so I didn’t. Those two needed to face justice and be questioned, and it was better for the father to call the authorities than for me to kill them on the spot. “
Again, Melistar nodded. “Go on.”
She took a deep breath and continued. “For the third test, I used magic when it was obvious I had no alternative. If I hadn’t, I couldn’t have stopped the child from being eaten or reached her before she drowned in panic. My guess is that the test was to be able to recognize when magic is the most practical answer and to only use it if I had to. In that instance, I had to if I was to stop the beast and save the child from drowning, but I could use a towel to dry her.”
She looked up and saw they were both nodding but she pressed on. “So, I guess the thing is to know when we need to use magic and when there are better ways and to trust our instincts to be able to tell the difference.”
Melistar laid a hand on her shoulder. “Very good. You have passed. I will give you a gift—some wisdom that might be of use in your next test.”
Stephanie couldn’t help but grin. The woman pressed her finger to her forehead, but as soon as she made contact, the Teacher gasped and collapsed.
Chapter Forty-Six
Stephanie and V’ritan knelt beside Melistar. After her collapse in the testing room, they had carried her to the old flowered couch in the Teacher’s small living room. Together, they had waited for her to wake.
Her stillness had them incredibly worried until a Meligornian bird landed on the windowsill and chirped at her, its song accompanied by a fresh breeze. At the sound, she opened her purple eyes, blinked the purple haze away, and immediately focused on Stephanie.
“Your memories…the final wisdom I wanted to give you… It was too much.” She smiled. “From what little I shared, I believe it is safe to say you understand the mystery of the illusion of magic without further knowledge from me. Go. You have my blessing.”
As she spoke, she grasped the girl’s right wrist. After a brief flash of purple light, Melistar released her.
A hasty glance at her wrist revealed a sigil of a flower with thorns that appeared to be burned into her skin. She looked from the mark to Melistar. “Can we get you anything?”
The Teacher shook her head. “Oh, no. I’m okay. I think I’ll take a nap right here in the breeze. I’m glad to know you have come. There is hope, now.”
They said goodbye and returned to the ship. Lars trailed in their wake. The team was very excited and wanted to go out and celebrate, but she shook her head. “We can celebrate when the other two are done. I need a clear head until then.”
Frog pouted and the guys groaned, but none of them argued. V’ritan suppressed a smile as they rolled their eyes and muttered a reluctant but unanimous, “Fine.” None of them argued when the pilot set a course for the palace, and she decided they should eat in so she could get some rest.
At first, Stephanie thought she would have trouble getting to sleep, but that wasn’t the case. She drifted off thinking of the stars and spent her night floating among them, listening to the sound of the voices of loved ones past.
Normally, that would have made her sad, but when she woke, she felt renewed. The presence of the Meligornian who had befriended her on the liner stayed with her, warming her spirit as she rose to face the day.
After a quiet breakfast, she met V’ritan and led the team out to the shuttle. This time, their destination lay almost a full half day away. The ambassador reminded her that day’s test was for the illusion of the extent of magic.
He looked at her as the pilot brought the shuttle in to land. “The next one will test how far magic can be wielded. And that doesn’t necessarily mean distance...so be aware.”
She nodded. “Right.” She glanced at the team as the pilot released the hatch. “I’ll be back, guys.”
The Meligornian shook his head. “On this one, you get to take your team with you. This test is more about emotions, feelings, and how you can’t make someone love someone they do not.”
Stephanie nodded again and hoped the test wouldn’t try to force individual team members to fall in love with each other. Firstly, because it wasn’t something she wanted to do, and then because, if she tried it and succeeded, they’d be pissed at her forever.
V’ritan led them to the door of another small cottage and gestured for her to knock. She was answered shortly after by an older Teacher with silver hair, a wrinkled face, and lively blue eyes.
The woman walked with a slight hunch but still moved easily and swiftly in spite of it. She stepped out of the house and walked them to the back yard, where she gestured toward the trees beyond.
V’ritan knew her as Ashgren, but she didn’t introduce herself to Stephanie when she addressed her. “You, human, are to take your team into the forest and use magic to find two creatures that regard themselves as alphas in the world and which hate each other. You must then use your magic to create a way for them to love each other.”
She went on to explain. “There are at least two beasts in these woods that cannot stand each other. You will see them sooner or later. The ambassador and I will wait for you here. You are to bring the creatures here once you have succeeded.”
Stephanie nodded and bowed to the ambassador before she turned and led her team into the woods.
He watched her go with a slight scowl on his face before he glanced at Ashgren. “I have always found this test barbaric.”
“Then you have missed the purpose of it,” she replied. “Its purpose is to teach the student not to mess with nature and that sometimes, there are things stronger than any magic. Hate can be one of them. Most, if they survive it, come out changed—both physically from injuries as well as emotionally and intellectually.”
“Well, that sounds wonderful,” he replied and stared morosely after the team as they entered the woods and merged into the shadows beneath the trees.
Stephanie dispatched two magic orbs and asked each one to look for a creature that would fit the Teacher’s criteria. While she waited, she retrieved her tablet and searched for references to forest predators known on Meligorn.
It didn’t take her long to pinpoint two which met what the Teacher had asked for. She called the orbs back and sent them out once more. They moved forward as first one, then the other, signaled a new direction to follow.
They searched through the forest for hours and finally arrived at a clearing in the woods. The orbs had done their task. They had located and drawn two alphas of the rival species to the same place.
The team could hear them long before they could see them. Low rumbled growls became a series of drawn-out yowls that reached the scale of threat and vengeance. Stephanie hurried forward and the team kept pace. They burst through the foliage at one edge of the clearing, completely ignored by the two Meligornian cats standing opposite each other.
One was white with black stripes and had six legs, whilst the other was black with yellow stripes and had four legs, four eyes, and horns. Their tails twitched stiffly with irritation, and their fur stood on end as they showed their fangs in an angry challenge.
Both were a little gaunt and glanced constantly at the large hairy carcass that lay in the middle of the clearing. The blaster burns in its side showed its death wasn’t natural and that it had lived long enough to escape the initial hunter, even though hunter had caused the injury that had killed it.
Stephanie crouched in the brush to study the furred adversaries and the team gathered around her. “Humans call the one on the left a Zee Cat, and the one on the right is a Yellow Jacket—apparently it has a sting in its tail like the wasps on Earth. They usually stick to separate territories, but when they do meet, they’re always enemies. Both are predators, and these two will be the alpha males of the region, the most dominant of their kind in the area.”
Lars shook his head. “From the looks of that kill in the middle, food must be scarce.”
She studied both cats and kill and agreed. “Then they’re perfect.”
Before he could stop her, she stood and stepped into the clearing. She slapped her hands together and pulled up an orb of sparkling purple and pink light which caught the attention of both cats. They growled and sank low to the ground but didn’t retreat.
From his position at the clearing’s edge, Lars watched as her expression altered and she pulled the orb back into her. She studied both cats and sighed. “There is no way they will love each other—ever—and there is no point in trying to force them to.”
The guys remained where they were but readied themselves to defend her against both animals if they attacked. “You can’t give up.”
Stephanie shook her head. “I’m not giving up. I’m trying something different.”
She gestured with her hand in a circular motion to create a large tub of meat beside her.
The first thing she did was to magically toss a piece of meat to each feline. From the way both beasts fell on it, Lars’ assessment of the food scarcity seemed correct. The next two landed closer to her—not by much, but enough to require the cats to step closer to each other and her.
With each piece she threw, she called out a one-word command coupled with their name. “Zeekat, come!” “Bumblebee, come!”
The two beasts eyed each other and her before they stepped forward to claim the food. She repeated the process until they moved toward her after she’d called the command but before she threw the meat.
From the sidelines, it looked like they were obeying her commands and then being rewarded. She kept it up until reaching their morsel would bring them within striking distance of each other. As if they realized this, both cats glared at each other and gave a low, moaning growl that set her teeth on edge.
The attack, when it came, was lightning-fast, but Stephanie was faster. As the felines launched into their attacks, their claws extended, she thrust her hands out to encapsulate each of them in a field of magic.
“No!” she shouted and lowered them to the ground. They stared at her in astonishment and she released the black-and-white one. “Zeekat, come!”
Instead of obeying, the cat lunged toward its enemy and was stopped in mid-jump by another magical bubble. This time, she set it down farther from the meat. She turned to the yellow jacket. “Bumblebee, come!”
The animal ignored her and tried to attack its rival. Again, she stopped it and set it down farther from the meat but closer to its rival. Both cats hissed.
Stephanie lifted the meat and put it back in the barrel. They stared at her, clearly shocked that their food had been taken away. This time, when she lifted a piece of meat, she walked over to the black-and-white cat and waved the bait in front of its face.
It hissed at her, and she tapped it on the nose. “No.”
The feline glared, and she offered it a small piece on her palm. After a moment’s hesitation, the cat scooped it up with its tongue. “Good, Zeekat,” she told him and scratched him along the jawline.
Magic shielded her hand before his teeth could close, and she wagged a finger at him. “No.”
She turned to the other cat and repeated the process, then alternated between them until they both accepted the food and caresses without any attempt to bite her. Both made small sounds of complaint when she returned to her position beside the meat bucket, and she smiled. “Good, cats.”
Both felines watched intently, and she turned to the yellow jacket. “Bumblebee, come,” she commanded and released the magic that secured it.
This time, although it looked toward its rival, the cat didn’t attack him. It moved toward Stephanie instead and was rewarded. “Good cat.”
Zeekat proved he wasn’t a slow learner and obeyed her immediately, and Bumblebee simply watched suspiciously. Slowly, she brought the cats closer again and this time, she only had to separate them once before she repeated the process to bring them back to the same point.
When she had them standing side by side as they accepted the food from her hands and allowed her to pet them, she glanced at the team.
“Okay, boys, this is your cue. Someone, come up and try to attack me.”
Lars exhaled a deep breath and shook his head, but he didn’t hesitate. If he did, he’d think about what he was about to do and he’d never do what she needed. He ran
toward her with a yell, caught hold of her, and hauled a fist back as though to strike.
The bucket of meat vanished, and the cats reacted. With twin roars of outrage, they attacked and lashed out at him until he released her, then pursued him across the clearing.
What they would have done if she hadn’t called out was frighteningly clear, but her cry of “Bumblebee! Zeekat! Come!” and the reappearance of the bucket of meat effectively ended their pursuit and they bounded back to her.
Lars turned and trotted toward her once again, only to be greeted by two snarling cats who spun to meet him. It took her some time to get them to accept him as a friend, but it had been worth it. Once she had them at a point where Lars could feed them, she introduced them to the rest of the team.
From there, she began to test the creatures. She asked the guys to attack her and had some of them to help the cats defend her. After each attempt, she brought everyone together to feed the cats before a different group attacked.
It took the felines a few attempts to understand that this was some kind of a game, but they were as intelligent as the research indicated and soon, they didn’t need to accept the attackers as friends after each bout. Instead, they watched as she divided the team and cocked their heads almost in anticipation as the enemy team moved away.
At one point, Zeekat forgot Bumblebee was on his side and took a swipe at him, but both teams attacked Stephanie to force the cats to work together to protect her. At the end of that round, they regarded each other warily until she petted them both. “Play nice, boys.”
She divided the team and had them attack her—again and again—until the animals worked together to drive their adversaries back before they raced back for her approval. “One last time,” Stephanie said. “This time, it’s all of you against them and me.”
Witch Of The Federation (Federal Histories Book 2) Page 51