“Right. So I guess we just need some enemies to battle,” she said, stepping back into her armor and letting it close around her.
Alant smiled all too cheerily. “They are already on their way.”
Chapter 27
Baxter threw up a shield, falling to one knee, and gave Boon and Sara a clear shot over the barrier and himself. Sara stepped close, her thigh bumping up against his shoulder, and took aim at the twelve Teifen soldiers leaping over a burning vehicle. She sent a blast of raw force, razor thin, and sliced through their armor as if it were tissue paper, splashing blue blood and guts across the dull gray metallic pavement with a sploosh that made her own guts twist in disgust.
“I’ll get the right,” Boon shouted, sliding on one knee and slamming her shoulder into Baxter’s shield, then popping up and extending her arm, sending a blast of Aether to super-chill the air in a tight cone.
There were three Teifen running from behind a vehicle, trying to take cover behind a concrete pillar. She caught the last one fully, freezing him solid in his armor, and the back leg of the one in front of him. The two Teifen kept moving forward with their momentum, falling to the ground. The one in the back shattered to small pieces, sending shards skittering across the ground to pile up against his comrade’s prone form. The leg shattered with the impact as well, but the Teifen was not dead; his screams of pain were loud enough to be heard through his armor. The third made it to cover and, in an impressive show of speed, raised his coilgun and began sending slivers of metal at them on full auto.
Sara dropped behind the shield along with Boon, as it flared with the unending barrage of shards.
“You holding up okay?” she asked Baxter, scanning the area in front of them through the sparking shield.
“This is nothing. Even before we bonded, I had enough power to hold off one rifle. How are you doing? We’ve been going at this for an hour, and I’m getting some strange feelings from you.” He wasn’t looking her way, but scanning the field himself.
“I’m starting to get the buzz Alant was talking about, but it’s pretty faint. What about you, Boon? You hanging in there?” Sara asked the small figure beside Baxter.
“Yeah, but I have the buzz for sure. And my ears are starting to get a little fuzzy.” She checked behind them, throwing up a shield with a yell.
Sara spun and saw the shield that Boon had thrown up sparking with several rifles’ worth of ammo. They had been so focused on the front that they had let the enemy get behind them.
“I’m calling it. Boon is already starting to feel the second effect. Alant, end program!” Sara shouted the last through her speaker.
The gunfire stopped instantly, and the cityscape fell deathly quiet. Then the city itself faded out, leaving them kneeling on a dirt patch a hundred meters from the podium where Alant was standing.
Sara stood, brushing dust from her armor. “Let’s take a break. I wish we’d brought some food with us, I’m starving.”
“Yeah, I could eat,” Baxter said, dropping his shield and standing along with Boon. “I could really go for a turkey melt right about now,” he added, noisily taking a sip of water from the straw in his helmet.
They made their way back to the podium and sat down on the relatively clean deck plates, resting quietly for a few minutes. They all had their helmets folded back to get some fresh air. Alister and Silva crawled out of Sara’s and Boon’s hip pouches, where they had been kept during the simulated battle, and met between the two women to curl into a mutual ball and promptly began to nap. Eventually, Sara started the conversation she knew she and Boon needed to have.
“We need to get you a guard. You were way more susceptible to the effects of that amount of Aether than I was—at a lot faster rate, too,” Sara said, leaning back on her extended arms and crossing her ankles.
Boon was sitting cross-legged, and hung her head. “I know. I wasn’t casting half as many spells as you were, either. I think the fact that my sister is gone is going to make this a much more difficult prospect.”
“I don't know about that. I think you’re just going to have to get creative,” Baxter said, leaning back in a similar pose as Sara.
“What do you mean?” Boon asked, looking up at his smiling face.
Baxter waved a hand at the still figure of Alant. “You heard what he said. I know you’re new to this whole mage thing, but trust someone who went through the academy; magic is more than the sum of its parts. If you can start using creation magic along with destructive, you’ll be better balanced, and able to fight longer. Maybe take the chance to heal others while in battle, or mend stuff.”
Boon thought about that. “How would I use mending in battle?”
Baxter shrugged. “I don't know, repairing armor? It was just an example. If you want, we can work on a game plan? I’m sure Gonders would be willing to work with you; she’s pretty good at the constructive uses of Aether.”
Boon’s cheeks flushed red at the mention of Gonders, and she looked down at her hands.
Sara raised an eyebrow. “You okay?”
Boon nodded rather vigorously. “Yeah. I’m good. It would be nice if she could help me out.”
Sara cocked her head. “Of course she would.”
“Maybe…” Boon started, but broke off to bite her lip before continuing. “Maybe, she would be my guard?”
Baxter scratched at his buzzed, white hair. “You could ask her. She’s a good choice to have by your side.”
Boon smiled, her face half hidden as she watched her hands wringing together “Yeah, she is,” she said dreamily.
Sara's eyes widened. “Really? Gonders?”
Boon’s head snapped up, a shocked look on her face.
Sara laughed lightly. “Boon, I had no idea you liked her. You seem so…” She waved her hand around in a nebulous way. “Conservative. I figured with your religious background, you wouldn’t swing that way.”
Boon frowned. “Not having pretty dresses wasn’t the only reason I left, you know.”
Sara held up her hands in surrender. “Hey, I didn't mean anything by it. You’ve just never mentioned it before.”
“Why would I?” Boon asked, making Baxter laugh.
“She’s got you there, Captain. It’s not like you’ve ever said you like men,” he pointed out, his eyes bright with mirth. Then a look of concern flashed across his face. “You do like men, right?”
Now it was Boon’s turn to laugh.
“Okay, okay. Sorry. For what it’s worth, Gonders is a pretty good catch; you couldn't do much better.” Sara waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “And I mean that as a guard or a lover.”
“That would be awesome,” Boon said, her eyes glazing with unspoken thoughts.
Baxter smiled and gave Sara a wink. “I’ll be sure to put you two together every chance I get, then.”
Boon blushed crimson, sending both Sara and Baxter into giggles.
Chapter 28
“How long do you plan on staying down here?” Baxter asked, pushing himself to his feet.
They had been sitting and planning out battle strategies for Boon and Sara for the last twenty or thirty minutes, but the sound of growling bellies had interrupted them several times. Now that they knew where the ship was, though, and knew how to get aboard with little difficulty, they could come back when they were better prepared.
“I suppose we should resupply. The shuttle will be fine in hover mode for a while, but I didn't really think about having to stay out here for any length of time,” Sara said, extending a hand for Baxter to help her up. “Alant, you said the ship would be ready to move in a few days; do we need to be here for it to keep preparing?”
“Not at all. Now that there is a War Mage to take control of her, the Exitium will prepare on her own. When her captains are ready, they can take over. They will need a day to properly bond with the core, but they would be able to perform basic maneuvers until a full integration can happen,” he assured her.
His statement about t
he core reminded Sara that they needed to find the machine to make them. “Alant, where are the cores made? We need more for the new fleet.”
Alant tilted his head to the side. “I do not understand the question. They are made where they are made.”
Now it was Sara's turn to be confused. She looked over at Baxter and Boon, but they just shrugged. “What does that mean?” Sara asked Alant.
“I do not understand the question. Are you asking what my words mean?” Alant asked.
Sara waved her hands back and forth in a ‘stop’ gesture. “Wait. I think we’ve started down the wrong path here. Let me start over.” She put her hands on her hips, trying to decide how to get what she wanted from the program. “How are cores made?” she began.
The Alant program stood straighter, and looked her in the eye more intently. “The secret of core creation is what separates us technologically from the rest of the galaxy. It is a closely held process that is never to be told to any who are not War Mages. Please ensure the room is free of those who could divulge the information, including bonded guards.”
Sara looked from the still figure to Baxter. “Does he know you’re here? He doesn’t acknowledge you when you talk to him.”
“Yeah, but in the simulation, the enemies targeted me, so I assume it knows there are others here,” Baxter said, looking to the door they had entered from. “Tell you what, I’ll go explore some of the rooms we passed while you talk. I don't want to cause any trouble.”
Sara bit her lip, not wanting him to leave, but knowing it was probably for the best. If the War Mages of old were that secretive about the process, there must have been a reason.
“Okay, but keep your tracking beacon on. I don't want to lose you on this ship,” she said with a smile.
A spike of fondness came from him, and he winked at her. “Don’t worry, Captain. I’ll be careful.” He turned and jogged off across the dusty floor.
Sara watched until the big double doors slid open at his approach, and he disappeared, turning down the corridor beyond. Then she looked back up at Alant. “Okay, buddy. It’s just us War Mages. How do you make a core?”
For the first time, the Alant program looked at Boon. “Please identify yourself with the scanner.”
Boon looked to Sara with questioning eyes, and Sara gave a nod. Boon stepped up and pressed her thumb to the pad that Sara had used to activate his program. The familiar green line rolled down, and after a moment, the projection bowed slightly, “Thank you, Mage.”
“Oh, now you see me,” Boon said, uncharacteristically sarcastic.
“Of course. Now that we are alone, are you sure you wish the words to be spoken out loud?” Alant asked.
“Why is it such a secret? I understand the pixies being hidden; there is a race of people at stake. But why so secretive with the cores?” Sara asked, suddenly unsure.
“Because unlike with the pixies, this knowledge can be spoken to anyone; there is no compulsion or contract keeping the words secret. Therefore, it is imperative that few people know the secret, and it is nearly impossible to make a War Mage give up information they do not wish to.”
Sara thought about that, but it was Boon who figured it out. “It's important because the other races could create them, if they knew the secret?” she guessed.
Alant gave her a nod. “That is correct. The majority of our advancements could be copied by the Teifen, Elif, or Galvox. Without those advantages, we would be overrun immediately. Therefore, the secret can be trusted to no one, save us.”
“Okay, that makes sense. So, what’s the secret?” Sara asked, crossing her arms in sudden nervousness.
“A core is an artifact of pure Aether. They are not made, but created. Traditionally, twin War Mages cast four spells at once, focusing their power until the core is complete,” Alant said, making it sound simple.
Boon held up a hand. “Wait, you said that other races could make them if they knew the secret, but then you just said that it took two War Mages; the other races don't have War Mages. How could they make them?”
Alant smiled. “We use two War Mages so that the secret is kept safe. For as long as we have known the technique, only War Mages have practiced it. However, it was not a War Mage that figured out the original process. A core can be made by any four mages, as long as the four spellforms are used. It does not take a large amount of Aether, or time.”
“Oh. Okay, that makes sense then,” Boon said, slightly chagrined.
Sara reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “I’m glad you asked. It saved me from looking like the dumb-dumb,” she said seriously. Then she laughed.
When Boon gave her a dead fish look, Sara focused again on Alant. “What are the spellforms?”
Four spellforms appeared in front of them, rotating slowly. “Have your familiars memorize them.”
Alister and Silva were already sitting at their feet; as soon as the forms appeared, the pixies began to study them closely.
After a minute or two, Alister looked up at her and said, “Merp.”
“You got it?” Sara asked, and he nodded. She turned to the ferret. “What about you, Silva?”
Silva chattered, ran up Boon’s leg in a flash, and disappeared behind her back, only to reappear over her shoulder and wrap herself around Boon’s neck.
“She’s got it,” Boon interpreted.
The spellforms vanished, and Alant continued. “You must focus all four spells on the same spot, and feed them with power until the core is complete.”
“What happens if we stop before the spell is done?” Sara asked.
“The released Aether will saturate you and everything around you for hundreds of kilometers. So much Aether will be absorbed that the objects in question will be pulled into the Aetheric plain to drift outside of time and space for all eternity. The spells do not provide the Aether used to create the core—they only open space-time and let the pure Aether flow into this reality from the Aetheric plain. The amount of Aether that is used is far beyond anything two War Mages could ever hope to channel in a lifetime,” Alant said helpfully.
“Holy shit,” Boon said, her eyes wide.
“Yeah. Let’s not fuck this up,” Sara said, a little overwhelmed herself. She had a thought. “Just to be clear, the two War Mages don’t have to be twins to do the spell, right?”
“That is correct. Any two War Mages may perform the spell together. The importance is not in who is doing the casting, but what is being cast. That is why this secret is guarded so closely,” Alant said gravely.
Sara turned to Boon. “Okay, let’s give it a try. Remember, don’t stop ‘til it’s done. I want to walk away from this.”
“Don’t worry about that; I want to get back home too.”
“Is it your Spanish lover? You want to get back to see her?” Sara asked, straight-faced.
Boon cocked an eyebrow in confusion before turning crimson and stammering, “Gonders is not my ‘Spanish lover’!”
Sara looked up, as if trying to remember something. “No, I’m pretty sure she was born in Spain.”
“I mean she’s not my lover!” Boon said, hopping slightly with frustration.
Sara just winked at the blonde girl, making her growl cutely. “God, you’re adorable. Gonders is going to eat you up when she finds out.”
Boon hung her head in defeat. “Can we please just get on with this?”
Sara smiled and nodded, then took a deep breath, closing her eyes to focus. She was so out of sorts from the last few days. I desperately need a nice long yoga session. Hanging out with Alicia would do in the meantime.
She reached her hands out, and Boon found them with her own small, warm ones. They clasped hands and centered themselves.
“I’m ready,” Sara said.
“Me too. Silva?” Boon queried, and the ferret chattered softly.
“Alister, you take the two forms from the left, and Silva, you take the ones on the right,” Sara instructed.
She sent a mental request t
o Alister, and a spellform appeared in her mind. Then a second one materialized next to it. Sara began gently at first, knowing the spellform would tell her how much it needed. She kept her focus on the two spellforms, steadily increasing the Aether flow until it felt like the right amount. She slowly opened her eyes, and nearly lost focus at what she saw.
Between her and Boon, a point in space seemed to warp and bend in a circular pattern. The center was the blackest black she had ever seen, reflecting no light. Upon closer inspection, she could see that everything behind the black ball was still visible to her, just scrunched up into the space around the ball, folded on itself. It was as if she had poked a hole in some spandex, and then forced a thick rod through the hole; all the same material was there around the rod, but it was warped and stretched. This was the same, but instead of spandex, the material was space-time.
The black ball grew in size while she watched, stretching the reality around it. Sara looked up and saw Boon staring at the spot with a dazed look of wonder, her mouth open slightly.
Sara began to worry when the black ball was the size of a basketball. That was much larger than the core on the Raven, but she knew she couldn't stop the spell before it finished on its own. She felt a spike of panic run up her spine. She opened her mouth to ask Alant if it was supposed to be this big, when the ball stopped growing.
The black surface became hazy, like a thin layer of clouds was forming on the surface of a planet, and was being viewed from far off. The cloud thickened, changing from a haze to a gray, roiling mass. The now gray ball began to shrink, and Sara realized it was being compressed by the gray mist on the surface. As it contracted, the gray mist began to thicken, and reflect more light. It compressed further and faster the longer it went on, until in the last instant, it snapped to the size of a softball, and the thick, now whitish mist became the solid mirrored surface she was familiar with.
The spells in her head stopped drawing Aether from her, and the core fell from the air to hit the deck with a thud.
The two women stared at each other in shock.
War Mage Chronicles- Part One Page 41
