by Kyle West
“I should begin preparations,” Fergus said.
Things were happening so fast. As soon as Lucian had found safety, it was being snatched from him. He would have to head back out into the wilds of this hostile moon, and not only that, survive the Sorceress-Queen, who was many times more powerful than him, who had hundreds if not thousands of mages and hoplites at her command.
Lucian doubted even the Orb of Binding could stand up to all that, but he had no choice, as he saw it.
It was his fate to find the Orb of Psionics or die trying.
16
All Lucian wanted to do was head back to his hut and sleep. But it seemed he wouldn’t get his wish. Both Elder Erymmo and Fergus approached him before he could make his escape.
“One thing, and I’ll leave you be,” Fergus said. “You shouldn’t be staying on your own by the lake anymore. I don’t doubt the loyalty of every man and woman in Kiro, but the Sorceress-Queen is a dangerous foe whom we shouldn’t underestimate. As unlikely as it is, there may be a spy in the village. We shouldn’t take the chance.”
“Where do I stay, then?”
“Kieron is an honorable man, and his house is one of the largest in the village. I’m on my way there now to let him and Julia know. Go straight there after Elder Erymmo is done speaking with you.”
“Are you sure, Fergus?”
“You’re a hero, Off-Worlder.” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “I mean, Lucian. It’ll be fine. Julia sets the finest table in the village. It’ll be the perfect place for you to rest tonight.”
“What if they ask questions?”
“I’ll tell them we’re going wyvern hunting. You’ve already killed two, so they won’t think anything is amiss. We already have a custom of having each family host a newcomer, so that they can get to know everyone.”
If that was the case, then Lucian had to wonder why Fergus had made him stay by himself at the lake. Pure dislike, probably.
“Be on your best behavior,” Fergus added. “They must not sense anything wrong. By the time they realize the truth, we should be long gone. Try to eat a lot and get a long night’s rest. You’ll most certainly need it.”
With that, Fergus left Lucian behind with Elder Erymmo.
“And now, I must say my piece,” the Elder said, solemnly. “And I’m afraid it will be more than a piece. There is something you must be careful of going forward, Lucian.”
“What’s that, Elder?”
“The Sorceress-Queen will not only be looking for you physically, but mentally. She is the most powerful Psionic in all the Worlds. Or at least, if there is one more powerful, I haven’t heard of it.”
“There’s Vera. The mage I met on the Burung.”
“Yes, there is her,” Elder Erymmo said. “But it’s hard to imagine there being a Psionic more powerful than the Sorceress-Queen. She has been a constant presence here on Psyche since the end of the Mage War.”
“The war ended fifty years ago,” Lucian said. “But in my dream, I got the sense the Sorceress-Queen was quite young. How could that be when she’s been here over fifty years?”
“I don’t know about that. Though few outside her own nobility have seen her, she is known to be quite old. However, her powers are those of the mind. She can, and does, use mind tricks to appear a certain way. When she must. Perhaps she thinks she can better influence you if she appears in the guise of a young and beautiful woman. One of the basic tenets of thought manipulation is that it’s better to inflame a positive emotion than a negative one. Your subject will be far more likely to do your bidding willingly.”
“So what are you saying? That she’s trying to make me fall in love with her or something?”
“In love?” Elder Erymmo looked aghast. “Almost certainly not. Seduce you, perhaps. You must be on guard of that, Lucian. If she can get a toehold, whatever the means, it won’t be long before the entire mind falls prey.”
The mere idea that an eighty-plus-year-old woman was trying to seduce him in the guise of a young woman made him sick, so much so that he didn’t have words.
“We are delving into the unethical,” Elder Erymmo said. “We won’t debate the morality of mind control. Suffice it to say, it is possible, and it’s a powerful tool for those who use it, for good or for evil. The Sorceress-Queen can outright control the minds of her subjects with her brands. With all that said, most obey the Sorceress-Queen willingly, without the need for outright possession – the technical term for any sort of mind control. It’s easy to manipulate others without active magic when you can read intentions, if not their thoughts. She can enter the dreams of other mages, and implant ideas that the mage will act on in the waking world.”
“How is that possible? My mind is my own, so I don’t see how she can influence it.”
“A mind is far more moldable than you realize. That is why you must always guard it. If people can be influenced by ideologies, propaganda, fears, and misinformation without the aid of magic, enough to start wars, revolutions, and abandon all sense and reason, how much more can the human mind be manipulated with the aid of magic? If you take that idea, and multiply it a thousandfold across many minds in an empire, for example, then you’ll come close to what the Sorceress-Queen is capable of. Add to that an artifact as powerful as the Orb of Psionics, then it might be the end of the Worlds as we know them, especially if she finds a way off Psyche. Worse, mages have a particular vulnerability – a mage’s mind, or at least a part of it, is connected to the Manifold. She can reach you through there. Not easily, mind you. It takes far more magic for her to break your defenses than it does for you to defend against them. That is why it’s so important for you to learn to stream wards. It’s during sleep that you are most vulnerable, especially when you’ve reached a point of incredible exhaustion. That is when you, or any mage really, becomes vulnerable to dream implantation.”
“And you can teach me to defend myself from that?”
Elder Erymmo nodded. “That’s why I’ve come to speak with you. Fortunately, a Psionic ward is usually enough to keep other mages from interfering with your dreams, and you won’t need the ether while you’re asleep, anyway. Forming a Psionic ward before bed should become a daily habit of yours. Normally a dualstream is sufficient, however, the ward can be strengthened by making it a tristream.”
“How long will it last?”
“That depends on how long the streams in the ward cohere. Usually that’s eight hours before the ward unravels, or even longer if the warder is particularly skilled. To create a Psionic ward, either Binding or Gravitonics will form the shell. As stated before, the shell’s purpose is to keep the Psionic Magic in place through stream coherence. Through coherence, the two streams act in tandem to keep the ward active. It’s paramount you learn to do this before you sleep tonight. Now, expand your Focus to me and follow along . . .”
Lucian did as instructed. Elder Erymmo began with a Binding stream, with which he surrounded himself. Lucian saw why he called it a shell. The blue aura surrounding him had the appearance of a shell, or perhaps an egg. That layer of magic was thin, almost nonexistent. Lucian followed along and felt the stream was simple to perform, the magic circulating around at the same steady rate.
Then, Elder Erymmo opened a new stream, this one Psionic. The way the magic streamed felt . . . different from the kinetic manifestation Lucian was accustomed to. It was slower, more like an eddying creek that filled every groove and crack than a sudden burst. Elder Erymmo’s Psionic magic spread, filling the empty space within the Binding shell. It didn’t fill all the space. Lucian wondered why, until he realized that the shell was leaving room for more potential streams. Theoretically, there was enough space for the rest of the Aspects to be streamed within the shell, though the amount of magic necessary to do that would no doubt kill whoever attempted it.
Once done streaming, Elder Erymmo closed his eyes and combined the two streams – or rather, “cohered” them. The bubble was now indigo from the fusion of Psionic and Binding Magic. Luci
an realized he had unwittingly done the same thing when he’d escaped the snow-filled valley on the Isle of Madness, only in that instance, he had cohered Binding and Gravitonic Magic.
Lucian felt Elder Erymmo’s stream cut off, leaving the indigo ward visible for a few seconds before it faded. Lucian followed the same steps, his own ward fading. Though the ward was no longer visible, inside Lucian felt that something was . . . different. As if his potential were weaker. The ward was fed from his base supply of ether, so if he ever needed to stream, he would have less ether to do it with. How that worked in conjunction with the Orb of Binding, Lucian couldn’t begin to guess.
“Good,” Elder Erymmo said, with an approving nod. “You’re a natural.”
“Where did the ward go?” Lucian asked. “I can still feel it. I think.”
“It’s there,” Erymmo confirmed. “Even if you can’t see it. Now, for the sake of teaching, if I were to do the opposite and make Psionic Magic the shell and Binding Magic the ward, then you would have a decent defense against Binding Magic. You might do this in case you were worried about someone tethering you or Binding your body parts together.”
“That sounds . . . awful.”
“A hard thing to do, that. Thankfully, as you gain experience, you can learn to sense what other mages are gifted at before it comes to blows by feeling their Focus. That will give you a clue about what to ward against. And if they attack you with an Aspect they are weak with, they will burn more ether to do so, and it will be easier for you to defend.”
“I see. Makes sense.”
“The advantage of wards is that they take little magic compared to the opponent who wants to break them. Remember: shields are active streams, and are typically more powerful, but are temporary and burn more ether in the long run. A ward stays in effect for much longer and is a passive stream. The disadvantage is that they are weaker than active shields and take up a portion of your ether pool. The amount depends on the strength of the ward.”
“I think I understand.”
“Now, let’s test your ward and make sure it’s set right.”
Before Lucian even had a chance to feel nervous about it, there was a curious tickling at his mind. It was the strangest feeling, like an itch he couldn’t quite scratch.
“Your ward is well-made,” Erymmo said. “Even I can’t puncture it. Your ward should keep you safe from dream implantation.”
“And it will go away on its own?”
“It will weaken over time, but usually a ward doesn’t lose effectiveness until after eight hours or so,” Erymmo said. “After that, they dissolve quite quickly. As you get a feel for things, you’ll learn when a ward is active and when it is not. While a ward is active, for example, it will be more difficult to open new streams. Upon dissolution of the ward, that ether will be gone until it is naturally replaced or drawn from the ethereal field. Another disadvantage of wards if you wish to think of it that way.”
Lucian wondered what would have happened if he’d had a Gravitonic ward in place on his first day on Psyche. If Serah had been an enemy, it could have easily been his death. He not only had to learn to stream wards effectively. He also had to learn to detect the strengths of other mages, to size them up in a flash, in case the worst happened.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lucian said.
“That’s all I had to show you. If you wish to learn more about wards, and their uses, I suggest talking to Fergus about it. As a Radiant, he is an expert in wards.”
“Why are Radiants better at wards than other mages?”
“Most of their magic depends on wards and brands. Light spheres, for example, work better as brands than active streams, as we discussed this morning. Seeking and concealment wards are also Radiant talents. So, of course, is the detection of light across all its spectrums.”
Lucian clearly had a lot to learn, but this new knowledge should serve well enough for now. “I should probably get going.”
“I wish you well, Lucian,” Elder Erymmo said. “Come by tomorrow morning, and my shockspear is yours.”
Lucian’s eyes widened at that. “The graphene one you have hanging on the wall?”
The Elder nodded. “You’ll need it more than me.”
Lucian almost refused, but he knew the Elder had a point.
“The road ahead will be difficult,” Elder Erymmo said, “but Fergus is a good man, and the best mage in the village. With him, you won’t have to worry about the Sorceress-Queen or her agents finding you. Go, Lucian. Get some rest. You are most certainly going to need it.”
With that, Elder Erymmo went to join the other Elders at their deliberations.
Lucian followed the trail back to the village. He was grateful for the empty streets, though he felt lonely walking in the darkness, the only light coming from inside homes. Conversations and laughter filtered out from doors and windows, which only reminded him of everyone he had lost. The sound was doubly sad, because those people didn’t know the threat they were under because of him.
He wanted to go back to his hut by the lake. He wasn’t in the mood for conversation. But Fergus did have a point that it was better to be safe. He tentatively approached the door of Kireon’s cabin and knocked three times on the wooden door. When it opened, it revealed Kieron’s ruddy, bearded face beaming a wide smile. His mood seemed to be the complete antithesis to Lucian’s.
“Welcome!” he boomed. “Julia and I were wondering if you’d gotten lost. Come inside!”
Lucian stepped into the light of the home, finding a well-swept floor covered with a mat of rushes. A fire burned low in a mud-brick fireplace, lending a warm ambiance. Over that fire simmered a pot of stew, its aroma savory. Julia was leaning over that pot, giving it a stir.
“Julia, Lucian is here.”
“I know, honey, but I doubt he wants his stew burned.” Once done to her satisfaction, she stood and smiled. “Welcome to our home, Lucian. Please, have a seat. It’s warm by the fire.”
Lucian nodded. “Thank you.”
Lucian went forward, where a couple of wooden rockers were placed before the hearth. Toward the left was a dining table with six chairs, all simple but well-crafted. Two pitchers of drink sat in the center, beaded with condensation. Above his head, Lucian noted a loft accessible by a short ladder, and another room leading off from the main family area. Fergus was right that this was one of the larger homes in Kiro.
Once Lucian was seated, Julia looked at her husband. “Kieron, dear, please see to setting the table. Lucian, it’ll only be a moment until dinner is ready.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Julia’s cheeks colored as she looked upward toward the loft. “Morgana! Where are your manners? We have a guest. Come keep him company while I finish up dinner.”
“Yes, Mother. I’m still getting ready.”
Lucian shifted in his seat, hoping the encounter with Morgana would not be as awkward as it was last night. He heard the floor creaking from the loft above, and then Morgana climbed down the ladder, wearing a pink skirt and red blouse with a large red ribbon in her dark hair. She skipped the last few rungs, landing neatly on the floor. Lucian stood, not sure of the mannerisms of this place, but it was better to be safe.
When she turned, her face was made-up, and her eyes smoky and holding a curious gleam that caught his attention. She strode toward him confidently, offering a hand. Lucian took it, wondering if he were supposed to kiss it or something.
“My stars, Morgana,” Julia said. “You look so lovely!”
“Well, you said to get ready, Mother, so I did.” She looked at Lucian. “Hello, Lucian.”
“Morgana. It’s . . . nice to see you.”
Her eyes sparkled even more as she took her hand away. “Well, I don’t want anyone to say our hospitality is . . . wanting.”
Julia looked from Morgana to Lucian for a moment. “I . . . think I’ll see to the bread. You two catch up.”
Lucian almost told her to stay, but she was gone b
efore he could get a word out. But by this time, Kieron was done readying the table and came to stand by Lucian. Maybe he could rein Morgana in, but Lucian wasn’t holding out much hope.
“I have to say,” Kieron said, jovially, “Captain Fergus has warmed up to you a lot! And I can see why, after your heroics today. I’m glad you’re on our side, especially with what folks are saying.”
“What do you mean, what folks are saying?” Morgana asked, her expression at once becoming pouty. “You know I don’t like being in the dark, Father.”
At this moment, Julia returned from outside with the dinner rolls. Lucian supposed that was where the oven was.
“Morgana, behave yourself,” she said.
Lucian wondered how she knew her daughter was being unruly with just one look. But perhaps unruliness was Morgana’s default. “Lucian, why don’t you have a seat at the table? Kieron, take his boots. Morgana, get the washing bowl.”
Morgana sighed. “Yes, Mother.”
As she stalked off into the back room, Julia shook her head.
“Something has gotten into her lately,” Julia said. “She’s usually much more agreeable. Please, Lucian, have a seat. Dinner is ready.”
Lucian sat at the table and tried to ignore the following awkwardness. If he could have had his way, he’d be eating alone in his hut, but for now, he’d have to survive this.
Morgana returned and offered the wash bowl, steeped with some small white flowers, a mischievous glint in her brown eyes which had a tingle of violet. Had her eyes always been that color? Lucian was too flummoxed to remember.
He washed his hands quickly while Morgana smirked. She turned just as her parents were heading back. After they had laid the pot on the table, Morgana offered the wash bowl to them both, her face a mask of innocence.
“Thank you, Morgana,” Julia said. “That’s much better.”
“Forgive my earlier rudeness,” she said, including Lucian in the apology. “I know I can be a menace, but I mean well.”
“That she can be,” Kieron said, with a chuckle. “Let’s eat!”