New Cali

by Erik Schubach

  Tongue in cheek I continued as Lucy tittered, “The adorable and lovable woman who insists I call her mom because she accidentally fell in love with our dear Prime Techromancer? It isn't like her to be so secretive?”

  He waved that off. “Well besides all that.”

  Lucia smirked. “Quit while you are ahead, love.”

  “Yes, Lucy.”

  I winked at them.

  Emily revealed her magic and the fact that she came from a faraway land to the south when all magic users in Sparo were called upon to fight the decisive battle of the Northern Rift against Avalon. Later she shared that she was on the cusp of revealing her deception soon anyway as I had started poking around and asking questions.

  Among my innate magic as an Adept, is the ability to take in other people's magic, unravel it and use it to boost my own moderate power reservoir or redirect it. I can do it with any kind of power, even electricity, and lightning.

  She has, for decades in the lands of Sparo, projected a suggestive field of magic that made people not ask questions about her, to make them think it was inconsequential and they had better things to be doing than wondering if she truly belonged there.

  As an Adept, my magics were basically consuming her aura, and it was confusing her that I had been asking the questions so many people before me should have asked.

  But once all was revealed, she had already claimed all of our hearts, not by magic, but by her personality and love of knowledge, and the fact that she stood for Sparo on the lines without hesitation. She shared with Donovan that Sparo is where she belonged, that home... was in his arms.

  The procession made its way into the courtyard. Then Misty stood in the stirrups on Goliath, and my big boy knelt for her as she rasped out in a fair approximation of my voice to him, “I am Great Mother Laney in all my three-foot glory, bow to me.”

  Hey!

  I blurted, “Hey! I'm taller than three feet!” as she stepped to the ground and Goliath stood again, towering over her.

  She pulled the hood back on the cloak and giggled at me. “True, you are taller.”

  Then my mouth worked like a fish out of water when Shan teased with the ages-old joke as she slid from the saddle of her Mustang, “Just a little.”

  I reached out and snagged the buckle on Shanny's belt with my magic and tugged her to me by it. I ruffled her hair and hugged her as I whined, “I'm still taller than you, half-pint.”

  Celeste, always so very helpful, offered, “It's a near thing. Another season and she'll have a hand on you, love.”

  Well, pluh.

  I looked at the amused rulers of Wexbury as Misty returned my cloak. “Of course we'll meet with you before mother's big announcement.”

  They mock bowed to me and then retired. I snerked at Fred musing, “I wonder if Cook has any sweet rolls prepared.”

  Lucia chiding him, “You know what Doc said. Try a carrot instead.”

  “Yes, Lucy.”

  He looked back to me and mouthed, “Help me.”

  I'd smuggle the man a sweet roll later, you can't deny him his simple pleasures.

  I sighed and looked at all the knights and squires who were not out on patrol, who were training in the courtyard when we arrived were all standing around now, just watching the show. I fluttered a hand their way. “Nothing to see here, you louts.” Half the smartasses bowed or curtsied before they went back to sparring and weapon's practice. “And where do you think you're going?”

  Misty froze, and asked, “To spar?”

  I sighed. “Not in your civilian garb. If you're to be a Squire you need to take it more seriously.”

  Celeste cleared her throat and I stopped talking as she asked me, “Excuse me, Great Mother, but exactly whose Squire is Misty?”

  I bowed low, making a gracious sweep of my hand. “By all means.”

  Celeste straightened then said, “Not in your civilian garb. If you're to be a Squire you need to take it more seriously.”

  Misty straightened. “Yes ma'am!”

  Hey! Grr.

  Then my traitorous wife looked me up and down, then pointed, “And you too, pipsqueak.”

  I kissed her fingertip and bowed to her. “I was just on my way to gear up. And where is your armor, my lady?”

  She pointed out, “We are in our capacity as Great Mother and Sora of the Mountain Gypsies on this little excursion. But I do need to loosen up a bit. Shall we?”

  We three headed into the barracks to armor up as Ingr, Shan, Rain, and Sylvia made their way over to watch some of the more advanced sparring going on by some of the more seasoned knights, and to my happy surprise, some Gypsies as well.

  I slipped into the armor devised for me during the war. This hybrid armor with which People worked with Highland's most talented armorers with. It was quite ingenious really, spell imbued plates with the spider silk and ceramic weave that would stop lead projectiles and blades alike, even more efficiently than the armor I wore before the war.

  It was crafted to look like form-fitting leather below the few plates, which weighed next to nothing, but were stronger than the steels the Altii armorers could produce. I had leather gauntlets and gloves which hid my silk glove, and even a matching steel and leather headband which held my hair back and protected my forehead... and looked suspiciously like a crown to me. Queen Everly promises me it isn't. I'm still not sure if I believe her.

  The overall effect, with the cuffed gloves and boots, and all the deep greens and browns, made me look the swashbuckling Gypsy Queen, with definite Altii influences. A hybrid, as I was in blood. I suspect Ranelle had lent her hand in the elegant scoundrel look, as that was how she had wished the world to see the Great Mother when she had held the title.

  When my forest green, sweeping hunting cloak was on, its peaked hood made me look the raven's maid who stole souls of unruly children in the night, as the Gypsy fairy tale went. Especially when I was ghosting as I moved. The spells upon it worked in concert with my own leaked magiks, to make me hard to focus on when the hood concealed my face. Was it by design that it added an ominous air to me as I stepped through the forest like a spirit of nature?

  Celeste donned her own that was similarly constructed, but made her look every inch the shining Altii knight she was. A combination of danger and beauty.

  I smiled at Misty's as I checked to make sure it was secure. She and Rain had conspired to create a true blending of cultures, with the leather flowing garments in rich deep greens and browns that looked as delicate as silk but were actually the same sandwich of leather, and silk as mine. With small ceramic plates that glistened like dark green scales above them, giving her full mobility while being able to stop most projectiles and blades.

  Rumor has it that the Altii weapon smiths and Gypsy artisans styled the smoky streaks in the deceptive armor after the mists I trail behind me.

  She looked almost like some sort of fragile dancer on the training ground, in some blending of the old and new ways of Sparo. And with her hair tied back in a knot as it was now, she looked almost regal and older than her sixteen years as she moved with the measured grace of a fighter, since much to my chagrin, she excelled in the training yard. She's already surpassed me in the Gypsy Kanset Forms and has moved on with Rain to the Kanshi unarmed defense form used against dual blade weilders.

  Misty strode out to the yard like she owned the place and I bit my tongue when she stumbled when Celeste stepped on the heel of our daughter's leather boot.

  Celeste warned her, “Humility, girly. You're only but a squire here, not a Sora. Remember from whence you come.”

  I smiled at that. What a motley family we made, a herder, a trapper, a cobbler, and a weaver... all playing at royals and knights. We ought not take ourselves too seriously or we'll lose sight of others who are not as lucky as happenstance has made us.

  My eldest exhaled, nodded, and the old Misty Cobbler, with her eyes full of wonder and mischief was back with us. She a
lmost skipped out to the other squires.

  I called out to Verna and Kristof, who were overseeing sword and pike training with the group at the time, “Hey, Muscles, watch the brat?”

  Verna, our sister in every way but blood, winked at me and raised her huge double sword, which she lovingly called Gertrude, with its sword breaking slot in the middle. Then she tossed a blunted pike to Misty. My girl looked at the pike and then slammed it down on her knee and snapped the blunted blade off, then tested the shaft in an easy roll, preferring the staff for it's relative nonlethality.

  Rain said to me, “Boo,” as she swung her twin, razor sharp blades, Bowyn's short swords, at me. I was already gone before her blades sliced through my misty afterimage. I smiled in glee as the game of “Catch the Laney” began while Celeste, Sir Logan, and even Jezelle joined in, trying to anticipate where I was or already had been or will be, and which of the ghost-like Laneys were actually me.

  Gods did I miss sparring. I only got to do it every week or so and now I was feeling a little rusty. I remember how awkward and out of place I felt the first time I was out on these training grounds as a Squire myself. Now I can see just how young and inexperienced I had been, and just how easy the knights were being on us until we gained some skill. But now, I could open up and feed the small part of me that felt a thrill in battle.

  Some of the knights and gypsies stopped their own sparring to move over to watch. Rain started to pull all the me's together with her magiks, but I shoved myself forward in time to swat her on the butt with the flat of my blade. “None of that, lady.”

  She chuckled at me as I made an effort to consume the pressure her magiks were exerting on me to break two more of me off ahead in time in explosions of mist. I could see my giggling ghosts leave me to keep watch over the strikes and blows coming from those around me so I could avoid, deflect, or block.

  My two blades, Anadele and Hera were in constant motion, using the Kanset Trulain Movement of one blade over the other in an oscillating front to back motion. Rain chuckled as we clashed, then I was gone to block the sneaky overhand blow from Jezelle which had landed a second later the first time I experienced it.

  I spun away from a reverse sweep of my guard's legs and eep! I ran into the chest of Celeste. She started to grin in triumph and I gave her a quick peck on the lips before she grabbed nothing but mist where I had been.

  “You little sneak!” Then she prompted, “I have a little something for you.”

  I stepped leg over leg, blocking and parrying incoming strikes from both Sir Logan and Rain, weaving my dual blades back and forth then combining them to capture and twist Sir Logan's blade from his grasp. I called out, “You're out Logan,” since we always sparred to first blood and disarmed is the same as injured.

  I returned to myself from two different possible futures gasping in surprise as I heard a whupping sound. A moment later I was falling to the ground as something wrapped around my legs, pinning them together and causing me to trip up. My wife was there above me, all smiles, her blade resting on my shoulder. “You're out, Laney.”

  Mother Luna! I looked down at my feet and then blinked at the group of braided leather ropes which had metal weights on the ends, tangling my feet. “What the...?”

  She looked so smug when she said, “It's called a bola, a weapon used by native Arcadian hunters. I saw a knight in Arcadia using one in their training courtyard. I've been practicing for weeks with it, thinking that since it covered such a wide swath of the engagement envelope and moved slowly enough through the air, that your sneaky future selves wouldn't have time to figure out how to counter it.”

  Rain was crouched at my legs looking at this bola thing with curiosity. “Well done Celeste.” Nobody was offering to untangle me or help me up, the... the meanies.

  Jezelle showed pity on her poor Great Mother and unwrapped my legs as she said, “It is amazing, the ingenuity of the people in the Outlands.”

  That made me smile as I shared, “We've enough volunteers now from the Fifteen Bands to form a Sixteenth of the People, to travel the mountains of Arcadia.”

  That was so very exciting to me. Within a few short months, five thousand of the People would be organized in the new realm, to share the wisdom and culture of the People with the new Sparinian realm of Arcadia. The Arcadians welcomed us with open arms when we liberated them from the Avalonian invaders. And their people petitioned then voted to become not just a protectorate of Sparo, but an actual Realm, following New Home's lead.

  Ranelle couldn't hide her appreciative smile.

  When I had suggested it at a conclave meeting at Father Stone two years ago, it was met with optimism and restraint as each of the fifteen bands did not wish to diminish their numbers, even for such an amazing opportunity of starting a new family of the People and spreading to new lands.

  It was Tianna, of the Aratreya band, who spoke to the hearts of the People and pledged ten percent of her family to such an unprecedented moment in history, but would consider only volunteers who wished to take on such a momentous adventure.

  I remember how my heart swelled with pride for the young ruler. Her commitment started an avalanche of volunteers from all the other bands, and the Mothers of each had almost no choice but to follow the young progressive Mother in her pledge.

  And now, after two years of organizing and negotiations with Arcadia, the new Mountain Gypsy band, Arcadius, is ready to start their travels of their new home in the Red Rock Mountains there. King George and I were planning on being on the fleet of airships in four months that would deliver them to the prepared camps, to see them off on their new journey in that faraway land.

  We all turned toward a commotion on the other side of the courtyard. Verna was holding a squire from Hell's Gate we had gotten in an exchange program, by the back of his collar, his toes barely touching the ground as he was yelling, pointing his blunted scimitar toward Misty, who was standing in a protective stance with her makeshift staff in front of a rattled Ingr and Shanicia who was pointing a familiar dagger the boy's way.

  I looked quickly to my weapon belt to see the dagger of the Great Mother was indeed missing. That little sneak!

  We moved over quickly to hear Kristof lecturing the young man as his knight, Lady Janice, just stood there shaking her head, a hand over her face in mortification. “...by no means acceptable conduct for an aspiring knight.”

  I noted the boy's nose was bloodied and I sighed as I prompted, “What's going on here?”

  The knights made a show of bowing to me as Kristof said, tongue in cheek, “Highness.” This got the squires bowing. The knights normally wouldn't as we are all friends in this venue, but they were teaching proper decorum to their charges.

  Misty blurted, “That... that boy was making lewd suggestions to my girl! I instructed him on the folly of such a venture.”

  I noted the redness of her forehead and knew what this “instruction” had been. The boy was lucky she hadn't broken his nose with the headbutt, her go to move besides smacking shins hard enough to cause a full grown man to stumble or fall.

  Oh lords above. This was not going to end well, was it?

  Verna released the boy who had stopped struggling and was now looking sheepish as he realized who Misty might be since I was there.

  I looked patiently at Misty. “Explain.”

  She froze and seemed to shrink in my eyes, becoming that small child with the spirit of any three that I had first met over half her lifetime ago. She knew she was likely in knee deep because of my tone. The one I reserved for misbehaving diplomats or headstrong daughters.

  She took a deep breath, calming the anger that had been boiling inside her earlier, and one hand tightened on the staff in her hands, causing green buds to sprout on it as she pulled her power back inside like her temper. “We were practicing sweep blocks from spear thrusts, when this... this other squire spotted Ingr. He started bragging about how he just wasn't good with weapons. And how he
could show her later... in his quarters.”

  She shrugged. “I asked him to kindly not make suggestive comments to my girlfriend, and he asked, 'Or what?'”

  She shrugged and said plainly like it was common sense, “I demonstrated for him what.” Then she added quickly, “But I didn't break his nose, I was just dissuading him of his current course of action.”

  I asked the boy, “Is this true?”

  Lady Janice stepped forward when the boy just stared at his feet. “It is, Great Mother. I was about to discipline him when Squire Laney interceded.”

  Ahh... it was just as Kristof had been lecturing the lad. I looked at the boy and tried to remember his name. I had read it in the dispatches. “Squire Raul, you must always be on your best behavior now that you are Squire. As Squire, all that you do and say reflects not only upon yourself, but on your Knight as you are her ward until you are knighted, and it reflects upon your Realm and Rulers.”

  I continued, speaking to all the squires, “You stand for Wexbury and so must comport yourself as such at all times. Banter between Knights or equals is different, as it is done outside the purview of the public. But never should a knight or aspiring knight make suggestive comments to a member of the public, and never, ever, to royalty as you did.”

  The boy's ebony skin turned ashen gray at that. He truly didn't know who he had been speaking to? I said, “That is Sora Ingr of the Lupei. A princess of the Mountain Gypsies, thus in our new blended society, royalty of Sparo.”

  He spoke in a whisper, eyes still down, voice shaky, “I... I did not know. I beg forgiveness.” He knew speaking to a royal like that could land him in the stockade if the offended party wished.

  Janice snapped in the tone I remember well as a Squire, which you responded to on instinct, “Not her, Raul, the Sora.”