by Keith LaHue
She bolted up two flights of stairs and got Davey out of the closet. She told him what had happened, and who had done it. He wanted to go see the model, but she told him to wait until the police were done. The two of them went down to the guest bedroom, where Mary filled Dave in on what had happened.
Dave struggled to understand why the Stenger kid had wanted to destroy the model. That was secondary in this thought. What was foremost was that he had felt the lay lines shift again. Someone in the basement had been using magic. And it wasn't his son.
43
Right before the attack, Jane One knew it was imminent, as the sun had come out. Jane One and Two had discussed the sun issue and had come to the conclusion that absolutely nothing was natural about their world. Jane One had timed it, unsure as to whether the timepiece she was using was even accurate. Some days lasted for more than twenty hours, some as little as twelve. Plus, there was always some light, regardless of the time.
Jane One yelled at the rest of the Mages to put all their effort into the spell. The blue intensified and spread out past the point where they could see. Jimmy had run up to the middle of the bridge and reported that Brooklyn, which was now almost fully built, had held.
Then the first concussion wave hit. They could feel the air inside the bubble compress and then relax between never-ending waves of whatever was attacking them. The shield held, and while it hurt them a little - Jane One thought that the half-formed probably felt nothing - it was something they could endure, unlike the direct assault that they all knew was taking place.
Tom wondered if the Grand Canyon was still there. While he had no great need to go back there, there were other Indians outside of his group that could be harmed if the spell didn't extend that far. The waves of compressed air hurt his ears, and he wondered how long they could hold it up. So far so good.
In Los Angeles, Donna and James had been fast asleep when the bat had come down on downtown. It shook the house, which was jumping up and down, coming off of the slab foundation it had been built on. James jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom, yelling at Donna to come with him. She followed.
"It's an earthquake!" said James.
“I'm not sure it is," replied Donna."Have you ever felt so much as a tremor here? I can't remember how long I've lived, but not once have I felt a quake."
"Neither have I. But given the fact that we're aware now, maybe...maybe time has started to move for us."
"News flash: While we were sleeping, the party went on as scheduled. It's the same day and the first one where we've had and...." She stopped as another loud crash came down. It didn't seem to be at Donna's house exactly, but it was nearby. "James I'm scared. If it was an earthquake, it wouldn't stop and start like that. It would hit, and then be over."
"I don't know what it is. But I think we're safe here, relatively speaking."
"The whole house is jumping up and down every time it hits, I don't think we're safe at all!"
"Then what do you suggest?"
"Maybe we'd be safer outside."
“Let's run for it."
The two of them left the confines of the bathroom and headed for the front door. There was no apparent damage to the house so far, and no smell of gas. It occurred to James that maybe the gas from the stove wasn't real either, still, take no chances.
Once outside, the two cowed in awe of the giant brown...club? It was gigantic, dwarfing all they could see. When it came down again, Donna and James were pushed up in the air as the ground beneath them rose up in anger.
"No, it's not an earthquake Donna!"
"No shit? I'm scared. Maybe we should go back in the house."
"No...I think it's done." James was observing the club as it retreated from view. There was a milder thump, then nothing. They waited in awkward silence for the club, and the sound of it striking to come back, but it didn't. After a full, tense ten minutes, James and Donna agreed that for now at least, it was done."
"James, what was that?"
"I have no idea. But I'd say that this part of California was hit by a force much greater than a quake. I think we should take a car and see what we can."
"Are you sure?"
"No, but I don't have anything better to offer."
"Me either. But let's take the giant SUV that I've never driven. We might need it."
They went into the garage from the outside door, no damage here either. The keys to the SUV were hanging from the pegboard that contained al the keys. James hit the garage door opener and was surprised to see it worked. He would have bet that something of this magnitude would have knocked out the power. They got in the giant Ford and James hit the switch. Once rolling, he had an idea to go into Hollywood proper, up in the hills so they could survey the town.
They were driving along the canyon road between Malibu and Hollywood when they saw the first of the damage. Half of a hill had collapsed, as if it had been struck directly with the club, and imploded. James and Donna got as close as they could with the car, then got out to investigate.
"It's hollow. The hill. Look at the giant void underneath, where it should be earth," said James. He moved closer to what remained of the hill. "Looks like it’s not earth at all but…" He grabbed a handful of dirt and let it run through his fingers, it was white and powdery. "It’s plaster of Paris, this hill was never real at all. The grass is just painted on. Ever notice that even though it never rains here, the hills are always green, not the scrub brown they should be?"
"You mean...the world itself isn't real?" Donna asked quietly. "I suppose that's only logical as we're not real either. She sat on the road, her dress all disheveled and put her head in her hands. Clearly upset, James came to her and sat beside her.
"Your tears are real. See?" he stroked her face, wiping away the tears. She took her hand and rubbed the tip of her finger with the wetness. "I know it seems like all of this is going to hell, maybe it is. I don't know Donna. But I don't think either of us had lost the desire to live. I mean, we are living right?"
"I don't know." She looked up at him and smiled weakly.
Jane One declared success. New York had been saved. None of them were sure about the rest of the world, what had been a house-lifting thumper in Los Angeles had been a mild tremor here. It did let them know that must have suffered some damage.
The attack had been expected, but none of the Mages knew how they had expected it. Camilla ruminated that there had to be some subliminal thought processes that they were tuned into. It hadn't come as a suspicion; it had come to most of them as a foregone conclusion. They had known about the attack.
The two Janes moved off a little to converse in private. Tom joined them without an invite.
"Excuse me? I'd like to speak with Jane Two," said Jane One.
"We all live here and share this land. For better or worse, I find it best not to keep secrets."
"Is that supposed to be some kind of Indian wisdom?"
"I'm no more an Indian than you are a New Yorker. This is all a ruse. Do you really think we're even alive? Look around you. What about the half-formed? Are they alive? In case you hadn't noticed they make up the bulk of the inhabitants."
"If we're not alive, then what are we?"
"Part of some design, of which I know not. I do know that alive or not, I feel compelled to do more than go through the motions. I was to find my twin, as you two have found each other. My twin works in a butcher shop on the upper west side. I don't know how I know that, but I do. We're all connected on a rudimentary level. Whatever you have to say to each other shouldn't be kept from the group."
"I suppose that's only fair. I guess that generally, we're all on the same plane of existence. Except some of us are magic users and some are not! Maybe we should be leading, as we already have been."
"You don't get it, do you," said Tom." We're all magic users. Some simply haven't developed the ability yet. Think about the first bodily function you had. There are those among us that have just recently experienced tha
t. We progress according to some design, maybe the being that created us."
"You mean God?" asked Jane Two.
"I'd have to say, that while I'm not inclined to believe in a supreme being, or a God, it does fit the definition, one that can create this world, this world of I suspect, many different cities, and from all over the world of our God's world. I think we are a microcosm of something much larger."
"That's more disturbing than anything I've thought of so far," said Jane One. "Okay, no secrets then. Let's get back with the others, and we'll all have our say, as equals. Even though as you point out, not all of us are as advanced as some."
"Agreed," said Tom.
The three of them moved back to the group. Jane One spoke first.
"Everyone listen up. We have to decide what to do now. This will be an open discussion, and everyone will get their say. From my point of view, the attack may have been successful in some areas of the world. I suggest we split up, and discover as much as we can about what happened, and what we can do to mitigate the damage that may have been caused. I for one have never seen Rome, so I'll head there. Suggestions anyone?"
"What do we do if we find damage? Reporting back seems a little silly, as we'd just be going back and forth without accomplishing anything."
"I think we should go in two's, everyone takes a magic user. We were attacked by magic, and I think that with a little magic, maybe we can put the areas that were affected back together."
"Los Angeles was mostly destroyed," said Jimmy the Quick. "I've never been there, but my twin lives there. He's been out exploring, and the city took a direct hit from the magic...or whatever it was. It was like some giant club that kept coming down on the city, bludgeoning it into pieces in some parts. I think we're going to need some serious magic to put that back together. I don't even know how to find it except that it is apparently near some place known as Byzantium. I've never even heard of it."
"It's from a different time, I think in this New York age it's known as Istanbul. Okay, so we don't know how to get to it. Let's set a more general goal of getting to as much of the world as we can. With each group having a magic user with them, we should be able to find...the edge of the world. Something tells me that unlike our designer's world, ours is quite possibly flat."
"That brings up a lot of questions. It took several days for my group to make it from the desert of Arizona to Brooklyn. Most of us now eat food. We'll have to be well supplied. There's no telling how long it will take" said Jimmy. "At least we have cars, although I'm not sure how we'll traverse the Grand Canyon."
"I'm not going back to that desert," said Jerome. "Once was enough."
"Nevertheless, I think Jane One is right. We need to explore the entire world, however long it takes," said Tom.
The group spoke amongst themselves for quite a while, with most of them agreeing to explore, provided that could do so without running out of supplies. Jane One told them that everything they would need was in the city, and seeing as most of the merchants were half-formed, paying for it was a moot point. They could just take what they needed.
Tom and Jimmy agreed to head back across the desert, Jane would go to Rome with Artimus, the rest of them were to follow the suggestions that they pick a direction and go. Jimmy's motivation was simple, if Arizona led to California, maybe he would get to meet his twin. He was acutely aware of him in his mind, and he could tell that his twin could, as of yet, only feel him when he was sleeping.
They left the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, each of them lost in their thoughts, pondering the questions better left to philosophers, yet forced upon them by circumstance.
Once James got Donna back into the car, things fared a little better. They continued to drive and found one hill that still had a passable road. Once on top, they had a panoramic view of what was left of the city. Downtown had been destroyed. Parts of Hollywood were hit and miss, literally. It hurt their souls to look at all that had been, now reduced to rubble.
There was also the disturbing revelation that none of the usual building materials one would expect to find in a city were actually used. The buildings they had come across had been made of plastic it appeared. In short, none of what they found was anything found in nature. So they stood, looking out at the rubble of the demolished high rises that had graced downtown, Los Angeles.
Donna looked like she was going to cry again, James had gotten used to it. He put his arm around her still looking over the devastation.
Then he saw it. One of the towers of LA was beginning to grow! Flabbergasted, he told Donna to look. They both stood and stared. The attack on their city had only occurred a few hours ago, and it was light all the time, something they had both failed to notice. The sun had come out in the middle of the night. They watched in awe as the city around them began to stir with activity. The city was somehow repairing itself The high rises downtown were just a part of it, they watched while one of the hillsides popped up, forming itself by unseen hands.
James got a mind-blast while he was watching. His twin, the guy from New York, was coming. He felt his twin assert himself in his mind, and that he was intentionally telling him that he was coming. He wasn't sure if he should tell Donna this, she was smiling, seeing that the city was being repaired. He turned to her, about to tell her about what his twin had imparted to him.
"I need to find a way to call off that damn party for good!"
44
Earl had sensed three of the four shifts in the lay lines occurring beneath the West house. Calling was out of the question. He wanted to surprise his old friend Dave West. He was sure that it was all some innocent behavior on the part of Dave. After all, nothing truly significant had happened; they were just bumps in the road. From what he understood, Dave had been in an accident and was confined to his bed.
He chose not to drive in general; teleporting was a much easier way to get around, as long as you didn't cast the spell in front of the non-magical. He wove the spell with his words, gesticulating on the accents, and braced himself for the relocation.
In an instant, he found himself in David West's bedroom. He'd taken a look in prior to his arrival and made sure Dave's wife and child weren't there. They weren't even in the house, though he didn't know why.
"This visit is long overdue, old friend," he smiled as he spoke.
"I'll be out of this cast day after tomorrow. I'll fix it all, I promise."
"Care to explain yourself?"
"My son and I created a diorama, of different parts of Earth. It was all innocent, I cast a spell to build the model part that was uh...shall we say, 'too challenging' for me to make on my own -"
"Meaning the entire thing."
"Well yes. At any rate, I cast the spell the day of my accident, and I'm sorry to say that it's been running ever since. You see, I created some of the inhabitants with the ability to oversee the construction and -"
"Wait. Did you create a pseudo-intelligence in these 'inhabitants'?"
"It was an unfortunate side effect...."
Earl flew into a rage. "Don't you understand that doing what you've done is strictly forbidden? You know this and yet you did it anyway. What if these creatures become self-aware? And who did you model them on? Who in this reality did you tether them to?"
"Just some people I know. Mostly non-magic users and they're not aware that they've been used."
"That doesn't make it all right. The lay lines upon which you built this house is directly on top of the convergence of two lay lines. Did you think of that when you cast the damn spell? For all we know these beings could think they're alive. In a sense they are, seeing as you saw fit to tether some of them. It's just some of them, right? Not all?"
"The diorama is quite big, I used multiples to create the illusion that there were many more than actually exist."
"You didn't use me, did you? Or yourself?"
"Well, I didn't use you."
"Then you did use yourself. You idiot, what if they're using magic? Do you rea
lize the disaster you've created? You've got to destroy all of them! Don't leave a single tethered being left in the entire thing. If you do, the entire order will be informed, and you'll lose your abilities. You're lucky they sent me. The order is concerned, and I'll need to seriously doctor my report just to keep you in the order! Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes Earl, it will all be cleared up day after tomorrow. Monday morning I get out of this plaster jail. I'll put an end to it them."
"I suppose it will have to run until then. It's not like I can go undo the mess you've created. I am going to create a confinement sphere that will encompass the house. It should prevent any major disruptions in the ethereal. It's not optimal but it will have to do."
Earl began the confinement spell, forcing his will upon the unnatural beings allied against it coming from Dave's basement. He broke into a sweat. Dave had used some particularly strong magic in creating the thing, and it had only grown as Dave had laid in bed. It took him almost an hour; he went from room to room making sure it was all holding. Finally, he was done, and he reentered Dave's bedroom.
"It's done, Dave. There shouldn't be any more incursions into the magnetosphere, at least not from here. But I want a solemn promise that this will not occur again. I'll be by Tuesday to make sure the entire magical system you accidentally created is destroyed. Is that understood?"
"Yes. No more playing God. I get it."
"In the meantime, I'll keep the rest of the order at bay. Just do your part and all this unpleasantness will be done with. On another subject, what was up with that deranged kid breaking into your house? You don't need to be a wizard to know about that."
"My son was friends with the child who was unfortunate enough to have been the victim of torture, he was abused by his father, who had also killed the child's mother. He'd been over here a few times and apparently was jealous of either the model itself or the relationship between Davey and me. At any rate, he damaged the model which was one thing, however...."
"The inhabitants are fixing it aren't they?"
