New Cali

by Erik Schubach

  I couldn't answer her as the fifteen Seekers holding my mind were applying as much pressure as they could to protect their leader. She growled and then stalked back to her chair and said to Aelwen who came in with my midday cup of water, “Strip her. Put her in slave veils.”

  Her head down in supplication she placed the cup on the table and rushed over to me. As she cocked her head, trying to figure out how to get my cloak and armor off with my arms and feet bound the way they were. Eris called out in a dangerous tone. “What is this?” Aelwen froze and looked up at me, terror in her almost clear eyes. “Have you been feeding her, slave?”

  Dianda looked into the cup too and suggested, “Her conditioning must be slipping as it does with those with mind glow.”

  Eris exhaled in exasperation. “I'm beginning to wonder if these people from Sparo are worth the aggravation. Maybe we should just have a mass execution? Well, I guess I'll just have to reinforce her obedience myself.” She looked to two of her inner circle. “Assist, I hear she's a handful.” Then she looked at Dianda. “Are you sure you don't want her for your stables Di?”

  The First Seeker shook her head. “No, she has scars. Though if her nose hadn't been broken sometime in her past, she'd be stunning enough that it wouldn't matter much.”

  Eris shrugged and said, “Slave, kneel here.”

  I could see Aelwen fighting the pull of the command, with that defiance and rage I was used to from her, but she couldn't stop herself as she stepped up to them and knelt.

  “Look at me.”

  She looked up then her face was awash with the blinding blue and silver magic from Eris' eyes. The Prime and her toadies winced, Aelwen was fighting them. But then all at once, her face went slack and then what could only be described as bliss transformed her as she looked at Eris as though she was the only beauty in the world and that beauty needed to be worshiped.

  Eris smirked as the light left her eyes. There, pet. Do you feel better now?” Aelwen nodded frantically, a dreamy look on her face, eyes completely vacant again. “Good. The next time we find you disobeying, you'll decorate the wall on a pike. Does that sound good? It would please me.”

  “Yes, Goddess.” The broken Aelwen took the cup from Eris, who was already bored with her, and she scurried off.

  Then they went about their daily business like Aelwen was of no further consequence, and completely ignoring my presence until I gasped when I fell through the floor, torn from my body as I was pulled into a vision.

  I saw them above me looking toward my body as I kept falling through the world. Then my head felt as if it were going to split in half from the pain of all the magic I had gathered as I saw flashes of things vividly now, meaning they were close at hand.

  There were two large hammers in my hands as I sweated in the oppressive heat in the courtyard that was dimly lit by the three sisters and the torchlight illuminating the paths and candlelight in the windows in familiar buildings. The Place of Learning.

  I was ducking under a sweeping halberd strike and then slamming a hammer in the man's gut with more force than I could ever hope to muster, then I swing the other way with the other hammer to connect with the shoulder of a Seeker with a short blade, my eyes on the ground the whole time. My muscular arms were foreign to me, slicked with sweat, blood, and soot.

  My back connected with someone and I glanced back to see Celeste as she wove her blade around as if it were weightless while she stared at the feet of the three combatants she was keeping at bay. I pushed myself free of the foreign body and I drifted out ten feet. My heart was racing and relief and wonder filled me as I watched the woman I loved keeping a hoard of Disciples and Seekers at bay. Strike after strike.

  At her back was Laura Smith of Flatlash. She was fierce and efficient with those hammers. They had come for our people... what were they thinking? Two against a horde?

  As I was being pulled back, drifting without an anchor, I realized something was off as they fought. Then I realized what it was. None of their blows were killing blows, they were just disarming and disabling the New Calians, as if they knew they weren't fighting of their own free will.

  I tried to pull myself back to Celeste, but I was being drawn back into the building I was being held. And when I saw the greater battlefield, had I been tangible, I'd have gasped. They hadn't come alone. It looked to be the entire army of Disciples and Seekers on the field, and hundreds of people in archaic Mountain Gypsy hunting cloaks, all fighting with staffs, holding them back.

  The Cristea! Somehow my wife had found the Cristea and they were all fighting in nonlethal styles, using forms and katas long forgotten to time. Some were slinging the misty white magics of the People, and none would meet the blazing gazes of the Seekers, who were getting hooded from behind by burlap sacks as they fought.

  When I accelerated into a blur, down into the bowels of the hold, I realized what I was seeing. It wasn't as it appeared, it was simply a distraction, this raid was actually a rescue. I drifted to a stop outside cells that held our people. There were less than there should have been, but I couldn't trust Eris to have told me anything resembling the truth.

  My heart thudded in my chest as a smirking Shan moved soundlessly in the shadows. She had a key ring in her hand. How had she... I glanced to the end of the corridor where the jailer and guard stations should be, to see the spectacular violet glow of Misty's eyes, sparking brightly in front of two Seekers who were cocooned in roots that appeared to have grown up through the cracks between the stones in the floor, their eyes covered in leaves. Hera was strapped to her back. And two men were lying unconscious at the feet of Jezelle and Sara.

  The three of them dashed up the stairs at the sound of cracking stone and collapse accompanied by the earth rumbling violently above. The chaos was accompanied by a whump of magic of such magnitude that it tore half my ghostly form from me, and it all tasted of my own magics, but never before could I muster such immense chaotic force. I felt blood trickling from my metaphysical ears.

  Shanny went about finding the correct key for the cells. I stepped up behind her, willing her to hurry.

  When one of the large iron keys slid into the keyhole as the rumbling slowly subsided, she grinned like a loon to our people. I jumped when a large hand slammed the door back closed as she turned the key and started to swing the door open.

  I wanted to scream for Shan to run. There was a big man in leather armor looming over her, and he growled out in a menacing manner, looking completely in control of his mental facilities, with clear, cruel eyes. “Just what do you think you're doing, girl?”

  I slapped my forehead, just to have my hand go through my face as she said with surety like it were common sense. “I'm rescuing my people, what does it look like?”

  He placed one hand on the pommel of his gladiolus and grabbed her upper arm roughly, causing both her and I to wince. “You should be afraid, girl.”

  She looked to think about it, then shook her head. “Nah, I'm not afraid. I gots a Verna.”

  He furrowed his brow and pulled back a bit to looked her over like she might be a bit slow. “What's a Verna?”

  My entire attention had been on my youngest, willing her to run, so I hadn't noticed the looming shadow that had stepped up until the man was wrenched away from Shanny with so much brute force the cell bars the entire length of the corridor shook and clanged when he was slammed against the wall. The man's eyes were bulging as he was suspended off the ground, his feet dangling a couple of inches off the floor as he clawed at the hand around his throat.

  I sobbed in disbelief and relief seeing Verna standing there, glaring at the man who had just laid hands on a girl she saw as her niece. Her huge muscles flexing as Shanicia said, almost sadly to the man, “This... is a Verna.”

  Then the insanely strong knight snapped her hand violently to one side, and with a popping, snapping sound, the man's body went limp, and she dropped his lifeless body. Then Shan was diving on her, “Auntie
Verna, you're alive!”

  Verna winked at her. “You think falling from the sky would keep me from rescuing you, Itty Bit? I'm here with your mother to get everyone out.”

  They fist-bumped then Shan said, “Mumsy is here too? She's returned? We were trying to find Mom but found everyone else instead. We were getting them out when you showed.” She gave her aunt a toothy grin.

  Verna ruffled my girl's hair then said, “Then it looks as though our plans coincided quite swimmingly. Let's get everyone out and to safety. We've a way out, down by the pier. The others are searching the building while the Cristea and Celeste wage war outside. They'll find your mom, but we need to get these people out safely. There are some Cristea hiding in the ruins just behind here, they've got Donovan and Emily... they're in rough shape.”

  Their voices started to fade as Verna explained their plan. And I was snapped back to the throne room violently as someone slapped my face hard. I focused to see Eris there, hand poised to slap me again. She called over her shoulder, “Her eyes aren't white mist anymore.” I shook my head to clear it. That was all so vivid and clear, and I had even smelled the unwashed bodies and urine in the cells, so it was close. No matter how bad my cheek hurt from the slaps, or how my body burned with all the magic I have gathered, I was almost euphoric, Verna had survived!

  Eris said as she regarded me, “There you are. I thought you to be having a stroke or something. But it was a foreseeing wasn't it. You had divined the future? Tell me what you saw.”

  My face moved sluggishly as I gave her a cruel grin. “I saw nothing.”

  She hissed. “Do it again. Focus. Tell me my future.”

  I shook my head slowly. “I already know your future, I don't need a vision.”

  Her eyes widened expectantly as I said, “I knew your future the moment you told me you had killed our injured. It is this... my face will be the last thing you see before you die.”

  She blinked, then the anticipation drained from her face. For a moment she was silent, as was everyone around us. Then she tipped her head back and laughed heartily, and every time she looked back down at my face she broke out into more laughter. The others in the room slowly started to laugh with her.

  Then she abruptly stopped and slapped me hard before striding back to her throne. She told Dianda, “This one, I like. She's got spunk and makes me laugh. I'm thinking tomorrow we try to break her with twenty or so Seekers, we're bound to find her limit.”

  She glanced at me again and did a double-take before offering, “Oh dear. You don't grasp it yet, do you? This ends only one way for you and your people if you don't help us. The only question is, how long do I keep you alive after we've converted or killed all the people you brought with you. Surely there is at least one that you really care about.”

  I shook my head, and wished I could stand just then, defiance looks much more intimidating from someone standing instead of being held immobile, sitting on the floor. I said to the world before the Seekers tightened their hold, “Psychopath.”

  This just got more laughter, punctuating my assessment.

  Chapter 17 – Biding My Time

  The rest of the day crawled by. I know that whatever diversion my wife had planned, happened in the cover of night. And by how vividly I could remember what I saw, it had to be this night or the next.

  Each time Aelwen came out with water for me, both she and the water mug were checked. Unlike Eris, the others of her inner circle apparently weren't completely convinced that the ex-duchess was fully under control.

  It had me thinking. About how they needed so many to control certain people, like how the Prime Seeker herself had two others boost her power for Aelwen. Was it a battle of minds? And a Seeker needed help from the others to overwhelm a stronger mind? It shouldn't simply be wills since Aelwen may be many things, but weak-willed is not one of them. Batshit crazy, maybe, but she was one of the most strong-willed people I've had the displeasure of meeting.

  If I was right, I would have viewed it as a weakness. But one thing all Seekers would have in common would be exceptionally strong and well-developed minds, as their mind glow allows them to absorb all the knowledge they ever encounter in any form. So very few without magic would ever be able to resist them. Though as I've witnessed, those with a spark of magic take multiple Seekers to restrain.

  I realized I was just trying to find weaknesses in their abilities, but none really helped me here, I was just trying to keep my mind active while I waited for the diversion. Nothing I have learned would help me here. I just had to continue to gather power from them until I had an opening. I was getting numb to the pain now, though I realized that I've channeled more before, but not ever held so much inside me for such an extended period.

  Blinking, I realized that maybe I had learned something that could help. I already knew they had to make eye contact, even if it wasn't direct, peripheral, to use their power on an individual. And they had noted that Donovan kept his eyes shut whenever they tried waking him. But I also noted how Celeste and the others were fighting the Seekers. Besides avoiding killing them, they kept their eyes firmly down.

  Was it that simple?

  I closed my eyes. Ok, so it wasn't that simple, my muscles were still locked up. I wished I had a more analytical mind to figure this out. The one thing that was for sure was that if a Seeker dies, so did their control over their enthralled. So why wasn't Celeste and the Cristea killing the Seekers to end this?

  The answer was obvious, and the same reason I would not have killed the Seeker that tried to sit me up if she had not been in Eris' inner circle. Those who stood with the psychotic Prime were there of their own free will, partners. The other Seekers were just as much victims of the woman as the Disciples. All had lost their free will. But how had Celeste known? Did the Cristea know?

  I started talking, playing off of her hubris and desire to let me know how superior she was. “How did the Cristea War begin?”

  She ignored me, but I saw I had her attention though she spoke in low tones to the others. “I'm sure it was just a fluke that you defeated them and banished them from New Cali.”

  This got her to stop and turn toward me, her eyes gleaming not with magic, but anger. Good.

  She said conversationally, “I guess it does no harm to give you a history lesson before I have no further use for you. That damnable Mother Loretta was too clever for her own good. We were moving my plan forward as covertly as we could. Turning one Seeker after another to see my truth, to see my glory. Until we had enough to take on the Prime and her little annoying First toady who said I tried to grasp beyond my reach.”

  She seemed agitated as she picked at her thumbnail like it had done her some disservice. “Our numbers proved insufficient to the task it seems, so instead of converting them, we just killed them. We had more Seekers loyal to me than to her and it was over quickly, turning the rest to see the light as it were. We told the public that the Prime and her First were executed as heretics, who had lost their way, and that the Sect was there to make sure none were led down the blasphemous path of heretics.”

  She hissed at Dianda who chuckled at her. “That damned Cristea, Loretta was immune to our charms and was asking too many questions. She noted Seekers she had known for years, acting differently. Then when we converted two of her own to silence her, they declared war on the Sect. Unfortunately, she was pretty convincing to the people of Doctrina. So we made those same people our army to fight against the Cristea, converting hundreds to our cause.”

  She was up and pacing now. “The war was swift as the fools refused to kill those they saw as friends, and their damnable power made very few of them able to fall sway to reason. To show my benevolence, I allowed them a choice of decorating the walls as a warning to all heretics not to cross the Sect, or banishment into the Lifeless Expanse where they could die a slower, much more satisfying death.”

  She stopped at the line she had painted on the floor just out of my range
of mobility and accused the world. “They are like jassic bugs or cockroaches though, and they won't die! They come back, again and again, to harass our Seekers, doing raids. We suspect they have a camp hidden somewhere in New Cali, else how are they surviving?”

  How indeed? Oh... she was looking at me like she expected an answer. How should I know? Mountain Gypsies are resilient people, especially Cristea as we keep learning over and over. She just kept looking at me like I was supposed to tell all.

  I wanted to know more so I asked questions in answer, “Maybe they're constantly on the move? How many in the raiding parties? Five?”

  She blurted, eyes wide as Dianda stood tall, taking a half step toward me from the throne, “Yes! You know their tactics?”

  I shook my head and smirked as I rasped out, “That is the way of the Mountain Gypsies. A unit is a Greva, which consists of five individuals.” Then I asked innocently, “You don't know of Gypsy culture? Even with the Cristea living among your people for centuries?”

  She shook her head. “They are private people but dedicated to gathering knowledge like us. It, unfortunately, makes them strong-minded.”

  I turned my head sluggishly and prompted the group, “Have you not heard their children singing the old teachings? Nor their bards sharing history lest it be lost to the currents of time?”

  My rebellious inner demon had me prompting, “They speak of the Grevas in the ballad of Great Mother Muriell and the Grevas. It was old before even the times of the Lower Ten realms of Sparo. Shall I recite?”

  I knew they couldn't resist learning this piece of history from the People, as misguided as they were they still had that thirst for knowledge that their mind glows as Seekers demanded to be sated. She nodded and I hid my smirk as I sang the best I could with the gravel my voice had been reduced to from the old magic burns my throat received in Solomon.