“It still amazes me how fast we can get this kind of information without ever having to touch a computer or anything ourselves.” Steven said while digging through the rest of the paperwork. The security company had probably only had three or four hours to put these files together before they had landed.
“Large amounts of cash work just as well as magic a lot of the time.” Randall finished reading the paper he had in front of him and went over to the telephone jack. He took a phone out of a box and plugged it in. Picking it up and hearing the dial tone he keyed in a toll-free number then pressed some more keys to answer the prompts and input his codes. If the phone line happened to be tapped or recorded they’d be treated to Randall making selections to change the address on his current identities credit cards. The specific sequence he was doing it in would setup a series of events to assist him in getting the target family picked up and moved out of here with a plausible story. The sooner the better. He finished keying in the digits then he and Steven sat down to wait.
“Hey! Check this out sir.” Steven had been paging through the files on the family history and come across the citation for a medal of honor award winner from World War I. That would make it Brent’s great grandfather on his mother side. The citation itself read for conspicuous gallantry at a hill in France. The company of a young sergeant had been penned down by enemy machine gun fire. At great risk to himself the sergeant had charged the enemy and kicked over the machine gun. He had then used his bayonet to kill eight enemy soldiers and when his bayonet had broken he had captured and wounded ten more of the enemy with his bare hands and a captured rifle with no ammunition in it.
Randall read it carefully then smiled. “This makes it a lot easier. I think our young king is going to enjoy hearing that his best friend happens to be part Xandian.” There had been Xandians on the planet now for so long that there were a lot of people who had the Xandian genes but didn’t know it. Young Xandians would go out and sow their wild oats among the regular people and very often didn’t hear about the consequences. Those consequences tended to grow up ignorant of their birth rights. Over the millennia many families had grown up with dormant Xandian powers.
Some of the people with genetic traits leading to certain magical powers went crazy. Without training it would be pretty intense to be able to hear the thoughts of everyone around you. Making objects fly across rooms with dormant telekinesis when you were stressed. The stories you hear of people in really intense situations lifting cars and trains off people or performing amazing feats could sometimes be traced back to an Xandian forefather. The same for the gifts of certain athletes and even for some of the greatest minds the science world has ever known. What brought a smile to Randall’s face on reading the citation was that what that sergeant had done could only be explained by an Xandian in a desperate situation using battle magic without even realizing it.
This made their job a lot easier as now they didn’t have to kidnap a family of normal people. Instead of doing that they would be liberating an Xandian family and bringing them back into the fold. This was something that was done as often as they were discovered. It meant they didn’t have to sit around waiting to make contact. There were people deployed on all seven continents who had the job of making contact and explaining to Xandians who they really were and inviting them into the fold. These people were typically witches with a bit of mind magic to set the people at ease and then some flashy magic like illusions to make it obvious that magic was real to overcome people thinking some kind of psycho had just showed up at their door.
Randall made another phone call and entered some more codes into the phone. This time the sneaky digital spy would hear him calling to check his bank account. When he hung up he was confident they’d have a witch ringing their doorbell by morning ready to go and bring Brent and his family into the fold.
Chapter 16: Reunions
Chris walked quickly down the long hallway towards the suites on the third floor that had been provided for his mother. Lacosta and Miss Penny accompanied him as he turned towards the last door on the right and knocked on it a few times. There was muffled shouting from inside and then Chris heard someone yelling at him to keep his knickers on. He smiled when he saw the offended and embarrassed expression that crossed Lacosta’s face. As the head mistress of the hallowed halls she was responsible for all the staff and everything that happened here. Having one of the maids telling the king to keep his knickers on probably did not suit her sense of decorum.
The maid threw open the door and stared in the hallway at the visitors. As she took in who it was she was speaking to a bright red blush spread across her face. She started to apologize. Chris laughed it off and told her not to worry about it. She seemed relieved until he evilly asked her why she thought he was wearing knickers. She started blushing like crazy again and Penny pushed the king past her into the room. The poor maid finally remembered to bow and managed to almost knock Lacosta over. Chris was about to make another crack when his face went suddenly very serious.
Glenda was laying on a couch in one of the sitting rooms. She had a silk robe on and a thick comforter was pulled up to her waist. Another maid was busy setting out a tea service for her, yet another maid was getting Glenda’s long hair completely dried off from the bath they had run for her. She seemed catatonic. The two maids bowed as Chris entered the room and he asked them politely to rise. Glenda turned her head to look at him and recognition slowly dawned in her eyes. She held out her arms for him and Chris rushed into her embrace.
They held each other as Glenda cried. She cried for her lost world. A world where she had a husband she loved and who loved her back with all his heart. She cried for the loss of her bright haired little prince. Ironically enough she had lost him because it turned out he really was a prince. She cried and laughed about that witticism now while she held him. She cried with relief at not having been killed in the attack on the castle in Ireland. She cried from the relief of escaping the clutches of the necromancer. He had poisoned her mind for fun. She’d been left in a room with one of the giant spiders guarding her and only a candle lighting up the space. It had been a waking nightmare. She’d watched the people assigned to protect her slain in front of her as they died to fulfill their oaths.
Chris wept with her. His tears fell for his mother’s pains and for the loss of his own innocence. He’d gone from hitting home runs on a little league team to making life or death decisions for a vast secret society. He told his mother it was going to be all right. He told her nothing could get to her on this island. He told her he’d sworn to fight and kill the evil that was in this world and follow it into the others to eradicate it there as well if he could.
“That’s good son. That’s a noble goal. I want you to also do things for yourself. Selfish things that I want you to have for yourself and for me. I want to see you with a family of your own. I want to play with my grandchildren. I want to sit in a garden by the sea and teach them silly nursery rhymes. If you can give that to me it will mean more than anything else.” Glenda looked into his eyes and then reached up and wiped away the tears before kissing him on the forehead. The maids had remembered important other duties they had in the other rooms as soon as the crying began. Penny came in and hugged both Glenda and Chris.
“We all want him to have those things and we’re all going to fight to our last to see that he gets them. In the meanwhile. Are these suites to your liking? Is there anything you need? Lacosta here is the mistress of this island and as you’ve probably already figured out money isn’t an issue for you now that your son is the richest man on the planet. If there is anything you need just tell one of the maids and they’ll make sure it happens. We’re going to take off now and let you two swap stories. Chris, your next lesson is in the observatory. The instructor will be there by two. You can take your time. They’re having lunch brought up to the suites for you.” With that Lacosta and Penny both bowed to Chris and left.
Almost immediately there was ano
ther knock at the door and several men in chef attire came into the room pushing a cart covered in silver dishes. The men all bowed to Chris with one of them dropping to a knee and offering up his fealty. Chris accepted and waved them to their feet where they started removing the tray lids and setting out plates. It was enough food to feed six hungry lumberjacks. Chris doubted he and his mother were going to make a huge dent in it. The cooks bowed their way out and left the food setup and ready to eat. Glenda was staring at all the food then she raised her voice a bit.
“Are you guys hungry?” One of the maids came into the room looking confused and asked if they needed anything. Glenda told her they needed her to get the other two maids and come get some food. The maid said they couldn’t until both Glenda and Chris insisted. Chris was wondering if he was going to have to outright order her to eat. Then the maid let them know that Lacosta had pulled the original maid who had opened the door and was having her replaced. Chris wrote out a note and asked the maid to have a messenger run that out to Lacosta for him. Once that task was complete Glenda and Chris were joined by the two remaining maids.
The one who had gone to pass off the note almost passed out when she realized the king was waiting on her to sit down before he would start eating. She virtually threw herself into a chair. The lunch started off awkwardly but gradually the maids opened up and told Chris and Glenda more and more about their lives and how they had ended up as servants here. Both had been passengers on a textile transport ship that was doubling as a vessel to transport people illegally into New York City. They’d been much younger when this all happened. The ship had wrecked in a storm and the next thing they knew they were plucked out of the ocean and living in a castle. They’d been given the choice of going back to the mainland or being snuck into New York and they had both decided to stay on here as servants.
Chris asked them why they’d made that decision. They both gave back a version of how they couldn’t imagine having their memories of this beautiful place and people wiped just to go back to the rat race of living in the outside world. Once they had seen real magic they knew they wanted it to be a part of their lives. Even if they were only on the periphery of it and were the lowest of the low on the totem pole. Chris assured them that all his vassals and people were important to him and they should always bring any troubles to him. He thanked them profusely for seeing to the care of his mother and then he made his excuses to leave once he had finished his lunch.
His main goal had been to set his mother at ease and it looked like that had been accomplished. As he was getting up to leave there was a knock on the door. Chris motioned for the maids to stay sitting and finish their meal while he went to open the door. Suspecting already who it may be as he got closer to the door he yelled for them to keep their knickers on. Throwing open the door he saw the maid standing there. Once again she was blushing. Chris began to worry she may pass out from all the blood flowing back and forth to her face if he kept up the jokes on her. He decided to be merciful and just speak truly to her.
“My mother said you were gentle when you washed her hair and you sang to her when she was too traumatized to close her eyes in the dark. You lit up the room for her so brightly that you chased all the shadows away. For what you have done for my mother you have my everlasting gratitude. If you ever need anything just let me know and I will do what I can to make sure you get it. Thank you.” The king then bowed deeply to the maid. This was a huge honor and he heard the other maids letting out little gasps. He’d been careful to speak loudly enough so that they heard as well and would welcome this other maid back into the room with no fear of repercussion.
Mission complete Chris turned and waved once more to his mother before walking out the door and heading for his lesson in the observatory. He wasn’t real clear on why he was going to the observatory during the day. He’d find out soon enough. He had learned not to question the wisdom of his instructors. They were working off of eons of knowledge in setting up training for royals to make sure they had all the skills needed to pass the trials. No one wanted a royal to fail. It normally didn’t end well for the instructors when that happened. Of course it ended up even worse for the royal which was another reason to pay attention to the training and not skip any steps.
He was hallway across the courtyard when he heard his name being shouted. He looked around until he saw Nicole was running towards him. She left behind a gaggle of her girlfriends who were all now staring at them. Nicole seemed completely unaware of the stares as she slowed down to embrace Chris without actually tackling him. She clutched him fiercely for a few minutes then took a step back and stared at him. She asked if he was ok and didn’t seem to believe him when he told her he was. He was beginning to feel uncomfortable between Nicole trying to count his fingers to make sure he had not lost any in the battle and all of her friends slowly moving closer to continue to stare at them.
“Hey. I’ve got to head over to the observatory for a lesson. I’m running late but I’ll see you at dinner!”
Nicole waved as Chris started moving back towards the other side of the courtyard. Turning around she let out a sigh as she saw all of her friends had moved in to listen and watch her talk to the young king. No wonder he had run away!
Chris continued on to the observatory. It was located down a long path that led up to the highest point on the island. The observatory itself was state of the art. All the modern technology that could be shoved into an observatory had been. Then the science had been melded to magic that gave it even greater value. This little observatory on the island was the most powerful observatory on the planet. It was amazing what unlimited funds and access to people with magical powers could accomplish.
Chris used battle magic to get him up the hill without having to arrive out of breath and drenched in sweat. He wondered how the mages and others without battle magic handled the long treacherous uphill journey. His guess would be that they handled it very slowly. He stopped and rearranged his robes once he had arrived at the top of the trail. Then he stepped forward and pushed on the large oak door at the front of the building. It slowly opened up as Chris pressed against it.
He walked into the cavernous space with the giant telescope eyepiece sticking down. This was one of the few places on the island where the modern world had made much of an impact. The walls were covered in large flat screen monitors that were scrolling data across them. Keyboards and mice littered the long work table facing the giant displays. Chris glanced over at a wall of clocks that showed the time in all the time zones across the world. Looking at the clocks he realized he was early for the lecture. This left him in the odd position of having nothing to do for a few minutes. He was typically busy from the time he woke up to the time he fell asleep. More times than not he fell asleep while studying.
A couple of older students in the corner were staring at a small monitor and clicking away. It was a group of nobles who all wore the robes of adepts meaning they had chosen the course of magic. That explained why they were hanging out up here in the observatory. Major magic needed major power and learning to funnel power from the solar system was a huge part of an adepts training. They’d still only learn the basics here on the island. They would spend years apprenticed to a master mage once they passed their trial. The same as a squire would spend years perfecting his art in the field as well once he’d proven himself worthy by passing the trial.
Chris was standing behind them trying to see what they were working on before they noticed he was there. He got an annoyed look from one of them who then did a double take once he realized the robes on Chris were purple. The poor guy almost fell out of his chair trying to kneel and offer fealty. The rest of the group did the same with one of them looking confused since he had already offered up his fealty but he decided better safe than sorry and did it again. Chris had asked and the oath of fealty was really pretty simple. It was powerful in its simplicity though. Stabit pro me et pro te moriar. It meant stand for me and I will die for you. The royals
were the representatives of all Xandians and carried themselves as such. If necessary every Xandian would back them up to the death.
Chris motioned for them to stand and they did. Chris then dispensed with all of the bows and instead went and shook each of their hands and did his best to remember their names. He’d already forgotten most of the names by the time the last adept told him who she was. An awkward silence ensued which Chris was the first to break.
“I didn’t mean to intrude on you guys. I was mostly wondering what you were working on. I don’t see too many people taking advantage of technology around here.”
The adept sitting at the keyboard smiled at that. “Yes sire. Most Xandians publically shy away from technology. In private a lot of them use it just like everyone else does. There are a lot of holdouts who keep technology once removed from themselves though. I’ve got a theory that we’ve been working on that may shatter that whole concept of keeping us out of technology.” The adept looked a little nervous to be divulging all this to her king. She licked her lips nervously and shoved her hair back. Chris nodded for her to continue. He thought he knew where she was going and it opened up all kinds of possibilities.
“Well sire. You understand the way certain types of magic work. They basically revolve around witches or wizards being able to focus enough to realign natural forces like ions and atoms using their innate abilities. If we can do that well enough to do some of the feats of magic I’ve seen then my theory is that we should be able to do it well enough to actually immerse ourselves in data. We should be able to basically extend ourselves into the systems and read the ones and zeroes. They’re just different voltage levels on transistors at the end of the day. If we can ride the internet like that we could be masters of all the secrets on the planet. It may open all kinds of new doors for us.” The adept was leaning forward as she explained her ideas. Her long blue hair was dangling in front of her face. A medallion covered in ones and zeroes hung down the front of her robe.
Son of the Keeper: Book 1: Principles of Magic Page 13