by D. Levesque
You have used the spell Fire Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
They look at all 36 floating Fire Arrows and their faces go from horror to fear to amazement to finally desire—the desire for power.
“I want people to help me free this world,” I tell them, dismissing the Fire Arrows. “I won’t let anything stand in my way. Are you with me? Or us?” I say, waving around to include Bridget, Leeha, and Sara, who had been watching the little show without saying anything.
Leo looks at Tommy, who looks back at him, and they both nod. “You have us,” Leo says, speaking for both of them.
“Good. Now, shall we start your first lesson?” I say. “How to call up your Elemental, but a little differently.”
They look at me in confusion until I point to Leeha, who, understanding me, lifts her palm up and shows them her little Water Elemental. But of course, instead of the shape they are used to, it’s in the shape of a tiny female.
“Bloody Hell!” says Tommy in wonder.
Leo and Tommy finally fall asleep, exhausted. I had taken out another carpet and placed it next to ours, still close to the firepit. Both of them were there, with blankets covering them.
“Are you sure they are safe?” Leeha asks me softly, leaning against me. I know she means safe to be with me, not safe on the carpet. Sara is snuggled against my other side, with her head in my lap.
“Yes,” I tell her softly. “Did you see the wonder on their faces when they were both able to bring up their Elementals to look like tiny men? They were so proud that they ran to you to show off. That tells me they do not have the disgust that others have towards other races. Even when Sara was helping Leo, who I thought would be the problem one, he gobbled up her advice with a grin on his face. Also, I forgot to tell you that I that found out earlier, the Mages Society is to blame for how people of other races are treated. So I need to take them out.” Sara’s head tilts up at my comment, and she looks at Leeha and me.
“They are a large Society, Alex. Are you saying you will kill every single member?” Leeha asks me.
Sighing, I say, “I don’t know. I just wish there was something I could do to get rid of that mentality. I know it’s not all the Mages. It’s mostly those that are older, who are stuck in their ways.”
“Why not assassinate the top?” Sara offers.
“What do you mean?” I ask her, looking down at her in my lap.
“Well, I would assume that these teachings are coming from the top, the bosses of the Mages Society. What if you took them out?”
“Wouldn’t someone who is just as pigheaded take over?” I ask her.
“And? You kill them as well. Alex, there will be bloodshed in this. Even from those who are not Mages. Humans have had a long time to get entrenched in this mentality. With the changes you are asking for, there will be bloodshed. You might even have a civil war on your hands.”
“Shit,” I say passionately. “I know you’re right, but my brain refuses to think about that. But if I don’t, this world will keep going as it is, and the humans might one day decide that disgust isn’t enough and eradicate the other races.”
“You think they would do that?” Leeha asks me in disbelief.
“It’s happened in my world,” I tell her, although I don’t go into details of all that we have killed off, from races to animals.
Now it’s Leeha’s turn to sigh, and she leans more heavily into me. “I wish we didn’t have to kill to change this world, but I don’t think we will have much of a choice.”
“No, we won’t. I just hate killing. But Sara might be right. We might need to cut the head to make it less bloody. For now though, I think we need to get more powerful. And also, the first thing I need to do is get rid of that damn Portal, or anything I do won’t matter in the long run.”
“How long did Bridget say it would take her to recharge enough to do what you want?” Leeha asks me.
“Two or three days. I am going to give her three. After that, even I should be recharged enough. I am afraid of opening another Chakra, but Bridget looked at it and she says I am far from opening the next one.”
“Where is that one?” Sara asks me. We had told her about those as well. For someone I wasn’t ready to trust fully, I have been telling her many of my secrets.
“Between my chest and my belly button,” I reply.
“Will you explode like last time?” Sara asks me hesitantly.
“I fucking hope not,” I tell her with a low laugh, trying not to wake up the two sleeping boys.
“I hope not either,” Sara says with a grimace. “Because that last time was gross.”
“We should get to bed. Let me call up an Elemental to keep watch,” I tell them, covering up a yawn.
“No, I got this,” Sara says with a grin. “Now that I know I can do it.”
With that task done, we all lie down, with me on my back, Leeha on one side, and Sara on the other, and we slowly drift off to sleep. As I fall asleep, my thoughts are consumed with questions. Can I do this? Can I change an entire world? But then I remember, it’s not the entire world I need to change—only the humans. With that thought, I finally fall asleep.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The three days ended up turning into five. But they weren’t wasted. Sara hunted for more meat, which once cooked, went into my bag. In those five days she was able to get nine rabbits and a small piglet. And Tommy and Leo had more training.
The most interesting thing was watching the two boys training with Leeha and Sara. They were not acting the way most humans I have encountered on this world do. If anything, they were laughing openly with the two girls. At one point after having success during a difficult part of the lesson, I even saw Tommy rush up and hug Sara, putting his face against her furred chest as if it was nothing. Though I am sure as a boy, he also copped a feel, which I can’t blame the kid for doing. In his position, I would have done the same damn thing.
They had been eating so well with all the food from Sara’s hunting, that they were starting to put on some healthy weight. They still slept on their own carpet, next to ours, but they were fine with that. We haven’t had any rain yet, but I should look into something more weatherproof. Although I look up at the sky and it’s another sunny and bright day, so there’s no rush.
“I’m back!” Bridget cries from next to me, and I jerk sideways as I had been distracted and wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings.
“Dammit, girl!” I tell her with a laugh. “Warn me next time, or I might have a heart attack!”
“Oh, trust me, with that new heart, you won’t,” she says with a large grin.
“Welcome back,” I say to her, opening my arms. She runs into them happily with a smile and hugs me back, and then I bend down and kiss her on the lips.
“Question for you Bridget. How do months work here? What month are we in? I was curious about when it would start to get cold,” I ask her.
“Ah, like Earth, there are 12 months here. The months are 30 days long, and the days are roughly 24 hours and 13 minutes, but for some reason, they run on almost the same clock as Earth. Here, let me try something. I might be able to show you the months. I have been doing some research while relaxing and recharging,” Bridget says.
Suddenly in front of me is a screen that I can see, or my mind can? I’m not sure.
Rebirth (January)
Earth (February)
Air (March)
Growth (April)
Water (May)
Mind (June)
Fire (July)
Sun (August)
Moon (September)
Stars (October)
Darkness (November)
Death (December)
“What I did is, I also tagged the name you would know for the months on Earth, to give you a rough idea of what the month is.”
“Damn, that is awesome! So what month are we in now?” I ask her.
“It’s currently the tenth day of Fire, what you would know as the tenth
of July,” Bridget supplies with a smile.
“Oh, maybe that is why the weather is so nice? I was wondering when we would start to get rain and snow. So, the month of Growth is when that would happen?”
Leeha, who started walking over when she saw Bridget appear, overhears that last comment.
“No, since we are not as high up in the mountains, we would be getting rain and snow starting in the month of Moon. We have been lucky so far in that we have not had rain. I would suggest we get a tent from the camp,” she says, coming over and giving Bridget a hard hug. She looks at her and says, “You’re all right now?”
“Yep,” Bridget tells her with a big grin. “All recharged.”
“Good,” Leeha says, hugging her again and then kissing her on the lips.
“I see that some of the months are named after the Elementals, but the rest are different,” I state.
“That’s right,” Leeha says, nodding at me. “The first month of the year is called Rebirth. The last month is called Death. It’s when the new year starts. Then Earth, followed by Air, then Growth, which is when we start to plant things. Then you have Water, Mind, Fire, which is the hottest month of the year. Then you have Moon, Stars, and Darkness. When the days start to get short and the nights long,” Leeha explains.
“So I guess you’re right and we should get a tent,” I say, thinking about the month. July on Earth, while it was summer, meant we had very little rain. I would rather have a tent just in case, and I know we will be moving around a lot and having a tent would be handy as Hell.
“Want me to go get it for you?” Bridget says.
“How are you going to do that?” I question her.
“I can zip there, place it in your bag, and zip back.”
“You can do that?” I ask her, surprised at that information.
“Sure,” Bridget says with a grin. “Remember, I am part of you.”
That makes me look at Bridget with a frown. “Are you saying when I am having sex with you, I am technically masturbating?” I ask, looking between Bridget and Leeha.
They both look at me blankly at first, but then they get it and finally break out in laughter. Then Leeha, still catching her breath from laughing so hard, gasps, “Does that mean that when I am playing with Bridget, I am technically playing with your feminine side?”
At that, I scowl at her but then I can’t help but grin since she got me there. I guess it’s not the same, then.
“Sure. You go ahead and grab that big tent of Brakan. Once it’s here, we can put it back together. Just grab it all, and we can figure out how to put it together after,” I tell her, grabbing my bag off my belt and handing it to her. She accepts it and then is gone.
“How is the training going with Tommy and Leo?” I ask Leeha.
“Amazingly well. Leo might be young, but he is very strong. I think he will end up being a powerful Fire Mage. Tommy is strong as well, but he is older, so there are some things he must unlearn. By the Gods Alex, what they were teaching them was blocking their skills. No wonder we Elven Mages, or even other race Mages, were so much more powerful that they tried to keep us as slaves. They did things that actually made them less powerful.”
“Like what?” I ask her curiously.
“Well, one thing we are all taught is the ability to see our power pools. When I asked Tommy to look for it, since he had been learning magic longer, he didn’t know what I meant. Alex! That’s the first thing we teach them right after being able to bring up the Elemental!” Leeha says in disbelief.
“You don’t think they learn it later?” I ask her.
“Honestly? After Tommy said they didn’t, I realized it makes more sense to me now that human Mages are constantly bottoming out on their power. I just thought they were stupid and didn’t pay attention. But now I have a feeling that it’s not ever mentioned or taught. So that begs the question, what else have human Mages not been taught?”
“Do you think that because you are teaching Leo and Tommy, they will become very powerful? That makes me nervous,” I tell her, being honest with my feelings on that.
“Well, you can always do something about that,” Leeha says, with an intensity that’s unlike her.
“Oh, like what?” I ask her.
“Kill them?” she says, but doesn’t look away from me when she says it, her face blank.
I look at her, and while I know she is right, I can’t do that. I look over at the two boys who are sitting on their carpet with Sara. They are looking at her with focused attention, listening to what she is teaching them. Every now and then, she lifts her hand up and her Fire Elemental would come up, but then just as suddenly it disappears as she closes her fist.
The two boys are a concern. Not because they will get powerful, but because they are both human. If I am honest with myself, if they were any race other than human, I would not have any concerns. But the worry is there. I can threaten them, but that’s not me. Suddenly, my thoughts are interrupted by Bridget returning and handing me my bag. I place it back on my belt and it somehow attaches itself. Just as when I removed it to give to Bridget, all I had to do was think of taking it off.
“Got it?” I ask her.
“Yep!” she says with a very large grin. Too big of a grin. I look at her suspiciously. “What?”
“I found out something about your bag!” she says, with that grin still plastered across her beautiful Elven face.
“And are you going to share it with me, or do I have to guess?” I ask her with a chuckle.
Bridget doesn’t answer me right away, but instead looks around us. For what, I am not sure. Then she turns to me and says, “I need some of your power. Can you call up Earth?”.
I look at her, trying to fathom what she wants to do, and I can’t. But as I trust her, I nod and think, Earth.
Bridget changes shape in front of me, and she is in her large Earth Elemental form, with acorn eyes, and green vine hair. Slowly she lowers into the ground, that grin still on her face. What the fuck is she up to?
Once she is gone, I look over at Leeha to see if she has any ideas, and she is trying not to laugh. “What?”
“Nothing,” Leeha says, finally guffawing. “It’s just that sometimes it’s hard to know who is the boss. You or her.”
I stare at her, until finally I just stick my tongue out, as I know she is pulling my leg.
“Don’t show that unless you intend to use it,” Leeha says with a laugh.
I feel a slight vibration under me, and I look down. The carpet we are on seems to be flattening. No, wait. Not the carpet, the ground. I look around, and the carpet that Tommy, Leo, and Sara are on is going through the same transition. They all look up in alarm.
I yell out, “It’s Bridget. Don’t worry.” I hope.
The whole area around us is getting flattened, even the firepit area. Eventually, after what feels like a good five minutes of the area seeming to move on its own, we are in a perfectly flat area. Then Bridget is next to me, back in her Elven form.
“Done!” she exclaims proudly.
“Care to explain?” I ask her with a raised eyebrow, taking in the area she just flattened.
“All in due time,” Bridget says with that big grin again. “Now. I want you to reach your hand into your bag and think Tent, and I want you to imagine placing it in the area I just flattened. Make sure you imagine the door facing the beach.”
I look at Bridget uncomprehendingly. What is she talking about? Then, my brain catches up.
“Holy shit! Are you saying that you placed the whole tent in my bag as is, and for me to call it up, I just need to think about it?” I ask her, my jaw falling to the ground. Or carpet.
“Yes!” Bridget exclaims in a squeal of laughter.
I look at her, making sure that she isn’t just pulling my leg as Leeha had just been, but I don’t see any duplicity on her face. Seeing that she isn’t lying to me, I place my hand into my bag, and I do as she instructed and think of Tent, and I imagine it being in the
area around us, with the front of the tent facing the beach.
Suddenly we are inside Brakan’s large tent. The same tent that we had found at the campsite of the slavers. With the carpets and the blankets that I had not taken laid out all over the place. The sunlight we had been standing in is suddenly gone, and we are inside the coolness of the tent’s shade.
Tommy, Leo, and Sara are staring at me in astonishment. Hell, even Leeha is staring in surprise. Bridget is grinning from ear to ear, watching our reactions. I slowly walk over to the front entrance, expecting to see the other tents and the Portal next to us. But instead, I see the Lake of Ruins and the beach we were on, only with the added feature of this tent. I close the flap slowly and come back into the tent, and then I look at Bridget.
“Bloody Hell! This is amazing!” I blurt out, with my own grin plastered on my face.
Chapter Thirty-Six
One thing I will say about the tent, it’s much cooler. Too bad there wasn’t a large one for the fighting area. I would need a circus tent for that, I would say.
“Are you ready for this?” Bridget asks with a worried frown.
“Not really,” I tell her. “But it needs to be done. I have no clue what timeline we are looking at before it opens, and the more I leave that thing exposed, the more some idiots will come along and touch it and kill themselves,” I say, shaking my head.
The last thing I need is another Brakan thinking it was something else. Though I am worried about that voice that we presume he heard in his head, telling him what to do. Was that the Portal and the Demons, or just that he was delusional?
“Bridget, your ability to zip from location to location. Can you take people with you?” I ask her, thinking of the walk to the Portal.
“No,” she says with a sigh at having to say no to me. “I can take objects, but not living things.”
“So, it has limits,” I tell her, nodding in understanding. “I wish it was a spell I could do. Too bad there’s no English phrase to let me do that.”
