Out of Time the Grand Quest

by Christopher Douglass

  “You can call me Amaryllis. Amaryllis Arrista. That’s what I allow my friends to call me.”

  “You don’t have any friends then do you?”

  “Vletch.”

  “He’s your partner, he doesn’t count.”

  “Then no, I don’t.”

  “You do now.”

  “But I better not hear you call me that in front of other people.”

  “Naturally. Can I call you that when Vletch is around then?”

  “He’s my partner, he doesn’t count.”

  “Naturally.”

  The two of them broke into snickering again, causing Frank to look worriedly over his shoulder. That made them laugh harder. Amy felt good. Maybe having a friend wouldn’t be so hard after all.

  Chapter 25: The Failure Wizard

  “Who the hell are these people anyway!”

  “Enemies!”

  “How do you know?”

  “They are trying to kill us aren’t they!”

  Jasmine flicked her wrist, connecting yet another strand to Maria who was fending off four swordsman at once. She skillfully manipulated an axe made of wind and dirt, a sword of fire, and whips of water like extensions of her own hands. Her staff work was nothing to laugh at either as she jumped in and out of the melee, striking men at exposed joints. As Jasmine wrapped up another wound where a swordsman had managed to graze her, Maria did a pirouette, blocking an axe from a fifth attacker before swinging the lower end upwards. The wood glowed blinding blue moments before it struck. The mans leather armor blackened on contact as the flaming edge cleaved him from crotch to neck. When it touched his metal breastplate, the iron melted like wax.

  Maria followed up that strike by ramming the knotted top of the staff behind her, hitting another attacker squarely in the throat and causing him to drop his sword while clutching for air. Swinging her weapon around, the very earth broke open, sending spikes skyward to impale unlucky horses and riders just galloping out of the woods. The moment an arrow managed to slip past her defense to stick in her arm, Jasmine was already there dampening the pain so Maria wouldn’t feel it. With near invisible thread, she yanked the arrow out, stitching the wound closed while Maria continued her mad dance of magic and staff.

  After what seemed an eternity, the riders turned and fled. A few got magical lances of ice in their backs but the majority escaped, leaving piles of dead and dying littering the town. Now that she had time to think, Jasmine could only stare at Maria in awe. While she knew this was only Kimi’s power being loaned to the girl, she had never seen Maria so powerful. It was hard to believe this was the same girl she herself had mocked for being unable to light her finger on fire to burn a pile of wood when the rest of the class was graduating to tier two spells. The way Maria stood with back straight and chest outthrust, staff planted in the ground and shadow chasing after the retreating enemy, reminded her of Grand Wizard Joel when he chose to be serious.

  Maria turned, her movements reminding Jasmine of a queen. Each movement spoke of power and confidence. Looking into her eyes was like looking into the well of the universes knowledge. The girl shifted her head to the left and right, surveying the barn doors behind Jasmine and the bodies on the ground. She stepped forward, her staff beating the dirt in time to her step. She looked directly at Jasmine who couldn’t help but swallow involuntarily.

  “We are leaving. This place is no longer safe.”

  “W-what do you mean? Kimi told us to protect the girl.”

  “And we will. Just not here. Those horsemen will be back with more numbers. I do not plan on being here to greet them.”

  “Then where will we go?”

  Maria smiled in a way that sent shivers down Jasmine’s spine. “We go house calling. They have already greeted us, time for us to go greet them. We will infiltrate their camp, wait until they regroup and send off the majority of their men back this way. Then we will destroy whatever forces remain. When those that left return, we shall destroy them as well. I will make them regret crossing me.”

  “You-- you do know you aren’t the Ageless Sorceress right? I’ve wielded that same power for a brief while, so I know how it feels like that other personality is who you really are.”

  “Of course I know. I’m in full control of my mind and my actions. But now that I have this power, this knowledge, I have a clarity I have never felt before.”

  “It’s just& you sound a little strange. I don’t remember you ever being so violent minded.”

  “I am making these decisions based upon the knowledge of Kimi’s sorceress. While a false persona, I feel the battle experience it holds is sound and reasonable. Strike before the enemy has a chance to, use deception to dwindle their numbers and kill them in small groups. Fighting four at once is easier than fighting ten at once.”

  “How are we going to transport the girl then? Stuck in that golem as she is, we can’t easily move her.”

  “Logically, we release her.”

  “What!”

  “Given the choice of them or us, I am confident the girl will choose to stick with us of her own volition. While we have kidnapped her, we have not harmed her. She may see us as the enemy, but she also knows these other men are not her friends as well. At least, this is what I believe. We have already proven we are willing to protect her from these men, and have shown we have the strength to do so. Given these facts, her choice is obvious.”

  “And what if she doesn’t see it that way?”

  Maria shrugged, stepping past Jasmine and entering the barn. “Then I will stop her. It is not like I do not have the ability to stop and restrain one little girl with no magic at all.”

  “If you can restrain her, then why don’t you do that from the start?”

  “Ineffective and wasteful use of magic.” Maria stopped, looking at Jasmine from over her left shoulder. “Besides, she is probably scared and lonely right now, I think she could use a friend or two. I’d like her to see that I at least, am not an unfeeling monster.”

  “Are you implying me and ’Belle are?”

  “Failure Santalada. Useless ditz. Steal her clothes, steal her stuff and hide it. She should go slit her own throat and donate her blood to a mage, maybe then she could do something worthwhile. No ’Belle, I doubt even her blood is any good. Would probably make the spells explode and kill the caster. Any of that sound familiar? You tell me who the unfeeling monsters are here.”

  Dismissing Jasmine, Maria made her way towards the ladder, leaving Jasmine to burn with shame. She couldn’t deny words she had spoken, nor the pranks she herself had pulled on the girl. She had been stupid and foolish back then, and she wished she could go back in time to do it all over. Blaming it on the idiocies of youth was no excuse either. The fact was, she had not had second thoughts about what she had done at the time. Part of it was peer pressure, but the other part was she had enjoyed making Maria suffer. It wasn’t until she had met Kimi, and worn the persona of the Ageless Sorceress, that her outlook had changed.

  Putting on that persona was like getting a glimpse into Kimi’s mind. While being a character Kimi had made up, it also had pieces of her true self woven in. For a brief time, Jasmine had been Kimi, at least a part of her. Only someone who used one of her characters could probably understand what Jasmine had felt. When she had looked at herself and Isabelle through Kimi’s eyes, she hadn’t liked some of what she had seen. She had seen herself as a good person, but at that moment, she hadn’t felt like one. She wanted to make amends, but didn’t know how she could do it. A simple sorry wouldn’t be near enough.

  Clamping her lips on the words of denial that instinctively rose in her throat, Jasmine followed Maria quietly. She passed the bodies of three soldiers on the way to the ladder, all three burned to a crisp. The girl Joan was awake now, a pile of ice lances sitting next to Isabelle who was resting on a hay bale nearby. Joan’s eyes were wide with fear, muffled noises emanating from her throat as Maria drew closer. The world tilted to the side, feeling to Jasmine lik
e a wound ripping open. Noise below caused her to look over the edge.

  Three soldiers stood there next to the corpses. Jasmine did a double take, realizing the three had the face of the ones that had been killed. Yet they didn’t even realize the corpses were at their feet. The three looked around a moment, leaving the barn without a word, the faint sounds of an army outside floating back into the building. There was some jangling noises then the galloping of horses fading into the distance.

  When Jasmine looked back, she saw Maria also watching the doors with a thoughtful look on her face. Her brows furrowed and her head cocked to the side. She met Jasmine’s eyes and nodded, saying without words she had seen the men as well. Dismissing the oddity for the moment, Maria touched the band of dirt covering the little girl’s mouth. The restraint crumbled away, allowing her to speak once more.

  “Let me go! Please! Don’t hurt me! Where’s my momma and papa! What do you want!”

  Maria placed a finger on the girl’s lips, quieting her shouts with that single movement.

  “I plan on freeing you, don’t worry about that. I’m sure you know better than us who those people are, even if you didn’t see them. Our job, and the job of the ones who kidnapped you, is to keep you safe. Now, judging by your current position, the other group did not care about your thoughts on the matter. Using the most expedient and magically cost effective means to do so. I don’t know where your mother and father are, or if they are all right or not. But, I am sure you realize you are safer with us than you are on your own at the moment. We will only be around for another seventeen hours, after that you can go on your merry way. So please, trust me, okay?”

  Maria touched the giant dirt bird on the tip of its beak with a finger while never breaking eye contact with the little girl. At first, nothing happened. Then cracks appeared in the golem, spreading out from that single point of contact. All at once the golem crumbled, releasing the girl who fell to her knees unable to stand. Maria held out her hand for the girl to take, offering a smile to go with it. Hesitantly the girl accepted, allowing Maria to pull her to her feet.

  “Who are you?”

  “No one you need to worry about. Once we are gone you will forget all about us.”

  “So you’re not demons?”

  “No. We might act a bit demonic at times, but we aren’t demons.”

  “Priest Louvrand says that magic is the work of demons. And you all do magic. So if you aren’t demons what are you?”

  “So you blindly believe everything this priest says?”

  “Of course! He speaks for the Lord.”

  Jasmine pulled Maria to the side so she could whisper in her ear without Joan hearing. “Give it up. These backwater people blindly follow the religious leader. Religion is the real power in these times. They haven’t been enlightened to what a bunch of crock it is. You do remember our lessons don’t you?”

  Maria pushed Jasmine away, giving her a cold stare that forced her back another step. “Like my grandfather says, nothing will change unless we change it. Ignorance breeds ignorance, and blind faith is a form of ignorance.”

  “She won’t even remember.”

  “But I will remember. Even if it changes nothing, at least I know I tried.”

  Maria dismissed Jasmine with the simple act of turning back towards the little girl. Jasmine couldn’t help but feel Maria wasn’t entirely in control of herself, that Kimi’s persona had a stronger grip on her than she realized. She wasn’t acting much like the Maria she knew. Perhaps the power had gone to her head. Jasmine knew how much she had reveled in the forces at her fingertips during the brief time she had worn the character. She had felt a brief surge of anger at Kimi for ripping it away afterwards, so strong had that personality gripped her.

  Maria squatted down in order to get on the girls level, offering another smile. “And is this priest never wrong about anything?”

  “Well, no. He is wrong about some things. Like when he said Jacque was going to be all right during the hunt. But he wasn’t all right. He got hurt and died.”

  “And you never thought that was strange? That someone who supposedly has a direct link to God, who is supposed to be his mouthpiece here on Earth, was wrong? Wouldn’t that mean that God was wrong?”

  “Well, now that I think about it, you’re right. It does seem strange. But the Lord is never wrong. He is almighty and all knowing.”

  “True. But your priest is just a human. He is not all knowing and almighty. He is also weak to the sins of flesh and mouth. Like other humans, he can lie. Or not tell the whole truth.”

  “But why?”

  “Would you be so ready to believe him if you knew he was lying about a lot of things?”

  “No. Daddy said not to trust a liar.”

  “That is why. Because you trust him, you believe and do everything he says. It is up to you to decide what to believe, and follow your own instincts, not let someone else tell you where to walk and what to do.”

  “I don’t understand. He’s the Lords mouthpiece. If he lies, then doesn’t that mean God made a mistake choosing him? But God doesn’t make mistakes. So that means what he says is true. Which means you have to be demons, since you do magic. But you don’t look or act like demons.”

  Jasmine could see the girl was trying to fight against years and years of indoctrination but losing the battle. To her, God was infallible, which meant that anyone who claimed to be a man of God was by extension infallible. She saw Maria sigh as she stood and Jasmine shook her head. She had tried to tell her, it was a waste of time. It was all well and good to try and change mindsets. But you had to pick and choose what was worth trying to change. Otherwise it was all just wasted breath.

  Nimli flew in the half open loft window to hover in front of Maria. Joan’s eyes went wide at seeing the little wood spirit, her mouth dropping open to form an O.

  “A fairy!”

  “Actually I am a wood spirit tiny human. Though I suppose that doesn’t really matter. Since fairy is my race, like human is yours.”

  Joan turned to Maria, her eyes sparkling like she had just met her god personally. “You really aren’t demons! Fairies are good and wouldn’t deal with demons. And if demons can do magic, then angels can too, so you must be angels!”

  Nimli looked from the little girl to Maria, her eyebrow rising into her hairline. “She obviously hasn’t dealt with many fairies if she automatically thinks all of us are good. Should let her meet an Eff, that would make her change her mind quickly.”

  “Shush Nim. If it facilitates our quest, there is no harm. Have you found anything out?”

  “Plenty, but I’m not sure what to make of it. I flew over to the darkened area like you asked. It is a town, different in design from this one though. Made of curves and sliding doors. Lots and lots of paper siding as well it seemed. The people are shorter than the ones here, and their eyes are slanted, less rounded like this girl. I assume these are another faction of human, but not Emishi. I heard the words Emishi and Ebisu thrown around, and based on the context of conversation, they were speaking of yet another faction.”

  “About what we already knew, so nothing strange there.”

  “True, but that is about the only thing normal I saw. While flying around, I saw Vletch. He looked like he was working with some of these Emishi. Before I could talk with him though, the world sort of blinked. Not sure how else to explain it. But for the briefest second, I lost my connection to the magic I am drawing from you and my heart stopped. At that same moment Vletch just blinked out of existence. As a spirit, I am in tune with the world as a whole. And I swear, for that single instant, the world ceased to exist. When it came back, I knew the world was different. The trees were not the same trees. The air was not the same air, yet at the same time it was.

  “I also saw Kimi and her group over there. Well Kimi and that short woman Amy. It seemed like they were working with some soldiers wearing leather and metal armor. Not the same soldiers I had seen Vletch with though. These
ones looked more like the people living in the town, with hair tied back and clean shaven faces. I did manage to speak a few of the animals around here as well. It was hard, and I barely understood one in five of their words, but I managed.”

  “What did they have to say?”

  “There are three factions in that area. Two of them seem to be the same side, I assume the Emishi. Maybe some fighting within the ranks? Anyways, one faction is speaking with the ones Kimi is with, peace talks I think. The other faction is pushing war, fighting both the soldiers and their fellow Emishi indiscriminately. By the looks of things, all three sides are evenly matched.”

  “Anything else?”

  “I circled around this town on my way back. Saw the soldiers attacking so judged it best to see if they had any more in reserve. Plus, I’m not really very useful in a fight, wood spirits aren’t really built for war like fire imps are. I didn’t find any more soldiers, but I did see Bree and Milly, they were back at that clearing where we first woke up at. I wasn’t able to get too close, but it looked like they were writing in that patch of dirt we used to communicate. That lends yet more credibility to Kimi’s idea that we are at different points on the same timeline. I decided not to try and talk to them either, since they never mentioned me during our conversations.

  “The only other oddity happened a few moments ago, right before I came back actually. Another one of those blinking moments happened. I lost connection with you and my heart again stopped beating for a fraction of a second. When it was over, the town was filled with soldiers again, but they all wore the faces of the dead that laid at their feet. The air and the earth were again different, yet the same. The soldiers all raced off after three left the barn, oblivious to all the corpses laying around.”

  “You have no idea what those flickering are?”

  “No. The best I can explain it, is that this world is not the same world we woke up in, yet it also is. The air smells the same, but the flavor of the magic is slightly off. The earth speaks with the same voice, but slightly off. It is like-- like hearing two people speak at the same time, but one of them is a half step behind. Like an echo.”