by D. R. Rosier
Katie turned and looked at them, then smiled widely like they were old friends. It was rather strange. She also looked a bit surprised when she looked at him. Perhaps she could sense what he was, but he never heard of another of his kind before. Sorcerers were rare, what he was, whatever it was, were virtually nonexistent.
Katie said, “Great, bones are easy, soft tissue and nerves are complicated for a sorceress. Umm, sorry. The introductions can wait until the boy is taken care of?”
He nodded, “Thanks for trying to help. We just got word of it a few minutes ago.”
Mara glided forward and knelt gracefully. Her hand reached out and gently touched the boy’s back. Her prayer didn’t take long, and the boy glowed with a pure white light, before it died down.
The kid got up and ran, without a word of thanks.
Mara called out, “Take it easy!”
Katie chuckled.
“I’m Katie, the current holder of the mantel of balance. This is Bria, one of my dear friends, and John is both my mate and protector. We actually came here looking for you,” she turned her gaze on Mara.
He frowned, “You all of us, or you, Mara. That’s Mara by the way, the priestess, and this is Cassie, a sorceress. These two are our guardians, and our family, Kim and Lin. I’m Sean Anders.”
Katie’s eyes widened, “Oh. That… makes sense. You’re not what I expected.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot being so short, and not breathing fire. So, what do you want with my mate, and what the hell is a mantel of balance?”
John looked pissed but he still didn’t reach for his sword, so Sean’s estimation of the man went up a notch or two.
Katie said, “I meant… you’re in balance, not your appearance. It’s a long story, who I am, my purpose in this life, and what I need. Perhaps we could talk over a drink?”
He nodded slowly, “After Mara sees to two more patients we came to see. The tavern?”
He wasn’t willing to take her to his house, not yet. Once the sorceress had been there, then she’d be able to teleport in at any time. Still, he wasn’t sensing any violent intentions, and she seemed nice enough. The sexy dragon looked more amused than worried. John was all restrained violence, but he didn’t blame the man for it, since Kim and Lin would cut John down in a blink if he threatened him as well.
It was in the nature of guards and guardians to be vigilantly protective around a potential threat.
Katie nodded, “That would be fine. We’ll get a table. It’s close to lunchtime, shall we order lunch?”
He nodded, “That’s fine, this shouldn’t take long.”
The three of them moved away, and the five of them followed one of his zombies to where the two cancer patients were.
It was a bit awkward as the five of them joined them at the large table in the tavern. He took a seat as did the others. Katie must’ve sensed his impatience, so she launched into her life story since the night of emergence. She told him about the balance, and how Gaia would move her to fix it if it started to go too wrong. She spoke as they ate, only pausing to swallow down a forkful every few sentences.
Apparently, the earth needed both good and evil, as well as all three sentient mortal races, not to mention the magical ones, to stay in balance. Otherwise it would fail. The fact she couldn’t tell him why she needed to have Mara with them when they went to the east coast, or even what they’d be facing when they got there, was annoying. He also knew it wasn’t her fault, so it was what it was.
He also kind of liked the world. Sure, it could be awful, but life was also good. Plus, he lived there, so it was kind of important to make sure it didn’t wither and die.
“Mara?”
There was a long pause as she closed her eyes, no doubt communing with her goddess. He wondered what that was like, but it always made her incredibly serene afterwards.
Mara replied, “I should go. They haven’t misled us in any way, and I’m needed.”
He grunted, “So, when do we leave?”
Katie’s eyes widened, “You’re coming?”
He laughed, “She’s my mate, and Cassie’s too. Damned right we’re coming, Kim and Lin as well.”
Mara blushed, but also looked… smugly pleased at his insistence.
John looked displeased, but the dragon was staring at him with a curious look on her face.
Katie finally nodded, “I won’t turn down the considerable help you and Cassie can provide, not to mention your guardians.”
John growled, “The man’s a…” his voice cut off midsentence at Katie’s sharp look. That was… interesting.
Sean said, “As long as we’ll have all that time together to fill. You mentioned Merlin’s library? Cassie has been advancing her magic the last five years, but I don’t suppose you’d be willing to offer her some tips and directions.”
Cassie scowled at him, but she was also drooling at the idea, he knew.
Katie bit her lip, and then tilted her head. She reached down into her pack, and she pulled out a short two-foot stick about two inches in diameter.
“I’ve been wondering why I needed to bring this, I think I just figured out why.”
He felt a whisper of magic leave her, and the stick lengthened into a six-foot staff. It wasn’t nearly as fancy as hers, but it looked like a solid weapon.
She handed it over to Cassie.
Cassie asked, “What’s it do?”
Katie said, “It acts as an extension of your will and magic. With just a little magic it will draw a lot of magic from the environment, and then load it into the staff. Then, you can cast spells with just a small bit of magic, and the staff will power the rest of it.”
Cassie tilted her head, and pulled the medallion out of her pocket, “I’ve been enchanting for years now. This works similarly, but only to teleport to this specific community. Just a little magic to activate and then it draws in what it needs and activates.”
Katie grinned, “Where did you learn the runes? I don’t recognize them.”
Cassie shrugged, then replied, “I made them up. They’re just made up symbols that represent a word and focused intent.”
Katie snorted self-deprecatingly, “Right. That’s obvious now that you’ve said it. I’ve been learning what they used back then, but any sorcerer could make their own rune language. The advantage to the staff though is it works with all your spells, and you can tailor them to the situation.
“Based on the power I feel from you, I suspect you can safely load that staff with power twice a day, and use it, before you would overextend. Perhaps three times, occasionally, if you don’t overdo it. The other advantage is when perfecting new spells. Usually between the first time you cast a spell and after perfecting it, it takes about a third of the magic required?”
Cassie nodded in agreement.
Katie said, “Well, this means practicing more safely, since the staff will provide the magic. Your enchantments are brilliant though, and still have a place for things you do mind numbingly often, but I’ve found most things I do work better if I tailor the intent to the situation. You’ll also be able to teleport wherever you want, for a lot less magic if you don’t have a medallion for it.”
He asked, “Why a third of the magic?”
Katie turned to him, “A spell has three components. The spoken word which has to match the intent of the spell. Like fire for fire. The spell itself I think has a minimum magic requirement. The rest of the spell’s cost is determined by focus and experience. Although, that last word doesn’t fit our current modern understanding of psychology. I like to think of it as conscious focus, and then subconscious focus instead of experience. Once you’ve cast the spell enough times, the subconscious part and strong focus consciously, makes the spell take less power.
“Think of it like… muscle memory for spells.”
He nodded.
She said, “Anyway, that is my gift to you Cassie. We can go over all the runes and exactly what they do during your first lesson, and if you want
we can even work on how to fight with it. I’ll also tell you the places I went wrong during my self-apprenticeship, so you don’t make the same mistakes. For now, here’s how you load it and cast through it,” and she went on to explain it in detail.
Cassie nodded, “With this, I can’t imagine enchanting anything else except for convenience, like the air conditioning in the house and stuff like that.”
Katie snickered, “My place has that too,” then turned to him.
“I can give you a few tips as well. I’ve studied some of the other magics. I’m not quite sure how much you’ve developed yours.”
He frowned, “Zombies, draining life, reading a person’s past, and healing myself. Oh, and communication with said zombies.”
Katie shook her head, and was clearly quite surprised, “Do you know what you are?”
He shrugged, “I’ve heard some say I’m a necromancer, but that’s just a word. I truly have no idea what I am.”
Katie raised an eyebrow, “You aren’t a necromancer. I’m not sure they even exist, but if they do they use death energy, not life. You’re a life sorcerer.”
“Life sorcerer?”
Katie said, “You control life force, and you can do many things you haven’t discovered. In fact, what you have done would be considered by some an abomination and a twisting of your true power, but I’m not one of them. I can see you care about protecting your people, and you did what you had to do during a very rough time. This community is a miracle. To think there are a hundred just like it, and another hundred you don’t control, all in relative peace, is phenomenal.”
Katie shook her head, “Anyway, you should be able to heal others as well. Not from everything, but certainly from trauma and sickness. Think of it as speeding up and strengthening natural healing. So a genetic disease, birth defect, or cancer, you couldn’t help. But making someone wounded heal faster, or if someone is dying from pneumonia you can pump up their immune system so they get better in seconds. You can also kill without absorbing life, just by… disconnecting it from the body of your enemy. The book said absorbing life force is incredibly addicting, but that just disconnecting it just gives you the normal magical rush.”
“I’ve never tried that.”
John snorted, and then looked at him like he was a monster.
Cassie said coldly, “He was stabbed the day after emergence, and he needed that life from his attacker to heal. He was also starved at the time. His first act after that was to save women from a rape gang, and then just for fun he built a commune to keep them safe. He needed the zombies as protection from raiders and to farm, and it built from there. That’s when he saved my life, and he gave me a place to belong with no judgements. He’s also never taken the lifeforce of anyone that didn’t deserve to be put to death. He had no reason to try a different way than what he was forced to use that first time, and he has to keep our police and defensive force alive anyway. So, go fuck yourself, and your judgement.”
Katie scowled, “She’s right, John. Cut the shit, where is this even coming from? I said earlier he was in balance and a good leader.”
John shook his head, but he didn’t say anything else.
He smirked, “This should be a fun trip. Anything else?”
She said, “A lot, actually. Your power is vast in subtle ways. You should be able to set up life links with your mates and trusted allies, which can be used for communication, and to monitor their health and heal them even when they’re out of range. It would also give everyone connected a general sense of where you all are. Then there’s life modification which is limited in scope but also incredibly diverse in subtleties.”
“Life modification. I may have done that already?”
Cassie clarified, “I haven’t aged a day since I met him.”
Katie nodded thoughtfully, “That’s an obvious one, and the book only gave a few examples. You could create or take away pain, also sculpt life to a limited extent. You can’t change someone’s nature, not really, but you can do so within the confines of their DNA profile. I imagine there’s a lot more that wasn’t covered in the text I read.”
Huh. The pain part he’d done already, when he’d squeezed and ripped apart that asshole’s life force. He might’ve done some sculpting as well, they were all in remarkably good shape, but that could’ve been from all the hard work as well over the last five years.
“Some of that sounds problematic or dangerous, I’d want to try it on animals first.”
Katie smiled, “Probably a good idea. I can just point you in directions based on what I read. You’ll still need to figure out how to do it on your own. You should also be able to read more than the past from a person’s life force, there are deeper subtleties which will tell you more about them, their health, and their bodies. That’s about it. But really, there’s a lot of things under those last two I mentioned, you can do a lot of subtle things to a person’s body or in reading their nature.”
Bria said, “There is one small problem. The permanent gate we need to use. They don’t bother me, they feel like real people to me, but all the elves that aren’t clerics are limited nature sorcerers that are connected to the animals and flora around them. Kim and Lin will freak them out.”
“What’s that about?” Mara asked.
Katie said, “I haven’t been to the east coast yet, not since emergence day, which means we can’t teleport directly there. To get there, I planned to teleport us all to the elven city by Colorado Springs. They have a permanent gate that can get us to the elven city in Vermont. Then from there we’d go south until we figure out who or what is the threat to the balance. Bria’s right, the elves won’t like me bringing the two of them through their cities.”
Kim said stubbornly, “We’re not staying behind,” and Lin nodded sharply in agreement.
Cassie replied, “What if I teleport here and pick you up once we’re out of the city in Vermont. That won’t be more than an hour or two, will it?”
Kim and Lin looked very unhappy at the idea of not guarding them for that long. Especially when he’d be near so many elves. Elves that’d tried to kill him the last time they’d met.
Kim suggested, “Why doesn’t Katie come get the five of us, once she’s been on the other side she can teleport right back here. That way we don’t have to risk it or have you three out of our sight.”
Bria smirked, “That sounds entirely too reasonable.”
Katie snickered, “Not a bad plan, I’d hate to waste the magic, but it sounds safer that way. I’ll be back within two hours, I’ll let you know if I get held up with a communication spell. There’re some old friends in Vermont who might want to catch up.”
Cassie tilted her head, and she pulled the medallion out of her pocket. She tossed it to Katie, who caught it easily.
“Waste the magic on one teleport, from here to Vermont once you get us. You can use that to get back here, so it doesn’t drain your staff.”
Katie smiled, “Awesome. Thanks.”
He said teasingly, “Hate to rain on your parade, but won’t we need that to get back here, after going home to pack and gather our horses?”
Cassie’s face fell.
Lin said, “Just teleport them home with us, give her the one around your neck, and well wait for her to come get us there? We can pack up while they’re doing the gate thing.”
They all agreed to the modified plan, as Katie handed back the medallion, and then headed outside to gather Katie’s three horses before teleporting home. Once there, Cassie gave them the amulet around her neck, and the three of them disappeared again.
They went to pack and saddle the horses. It was three hours later on the east coast, so they wouldn’t have all that much light left, but it was summertime and they could go a decent distance in the four of five hours of sunlight they’d have left.
The horses were saddled, and they waited out front. They had clothes and rations for a long trip in the saddle bags.
“So, any clue why John seems to
think I’m the devil incarnate?”
Kim said, “Not a clue. Just ignore the pup. I’m sure they’ve heard horror stories, maybe he believes most of them? At least Katie seems openminded, and if I’m not mistaken Bria was taken with you.”
Taken with him? Huh. He’d sensed the curiosity in her, but he hadn’t thought the dragon was attracted to him or anything. Not that it mattered. He wasn’t interested in an empty roll in the hay. No matter how hot she was. He was too old, and far too in love with his women, to ever risk that for any reason. Especially not just for some strange. Something told him a dragon couldn’t mate with a human, and wouldn’t join their triad making it a quad, and sex for fun would destroy something between them.
Mara said, “I can’t imagine what she would need me for. What threat couldn’t a powerful sorceress with more knowledge than any other, nor a dragon deal with that I could?”
He shrugged, “We’ll find out. You’re pretty damned amazing though.”
Mara blushed, then moved into him to steal a kiss. She really was short at five foot two, even at five foot nine her petite body fit perfectly against him and her head laid on his chest.
Cassie said, “We should also keep an eye on John. I don’t think he’ll do anything, but you never know. Technically, we’re not needed to save the balance, only Mara is. Perhaps he usually follows Katie’s lead as the bearer of the mantel, but he might decide he knows better than Katie in this case, since we’re only going along to protect Mara, and he might do something stupid.”
Lin said, “We won’t let him hurt master.”
Cassie nodded, “Just be cautious of his sword. It’s an extremely powerful magical artifact, and it can probably kill you both permanently if he can stick it in you.”
They both nodded casually, almost unconcerned by that possible danger, but he struggled to chain the protective rage that swelled in his chest that Cassie’s observation had engendered. It helped that Mara was still in his arms, her sweet scent and the feel of her against him calmed him. The protective part was all about them, the rage however was both at the thought of losing them, and an echo of his fears and why he’d never taken them to bed. He’d lost zombies before, to beheadings and some to magic, but Lin and Kim were family.
