Ancient Magic

by Blink, Bob

  “They had told me you had died,” Jhoni said as he held out his hand in the traditional greeting between wizards. “No one has spoken of you in several months. I had feared they were right.”

  “I have been away, working on something of my own,” Daim replied. “I find the Citadel less than welcoming these days.”

  Jhoni nodded understandingly. “It is true you are not in much favor with many, including most surviving members of the Council. They blame you for what has happened and claim that you lied to them about what was coming. They claim it was your fault that Naeem was lost along with several dozen of the nation’s best young wizards.”

  Daim’s angry look returned. “I did no such thing. They have access to the Seers. Did they not listen to what was forecast? I told them what to expect, but they didn’t want to hear what I had to say.”

  In truth Daim knew he had lied in the beginning. Lied by omission if nothing else. He had been careful not to reveal what he had expected after the destruction of the Rift. Oh, it would have been so much worse had the Rift remained, but had they been aware of what was coming, they might not have given him even the meager support he had extracted from them. After the Rift had been blasted from this world he had returned to warn them that it wasn’t over by any means, and that a grim fate waited for all of them.

  Jhoni nodded sagely. “I was present for the meetings. You did indeed present a very pointed lecture on what was likely to happen. It matters little anymore. Only three of the Council still live, and they hide away hoping to escape their fate. I had suspected something like this when you first addressed the plan for destroying the abomination in the Ruins. I was one of those who helped sway the Council to support you, although they did so reluctantly.”

  Daim hadn’t known that. Not only had he not noticed that Jhoni was present that day, but he wouldn’t have thought the elder wizard had any formal input to the Council’s actions.

  “I appreciate that,” Daim replied. “It was a very close thing, and had it not been for Naeem and his volunteers, we would have failed.”

  Jhoni smiled, then looked around sadly. “It isn’t the same anymore. So few of us remain and the world is regressing backwards. In another six months there will be nothing left. This will all be lost, won’t it?”

  Daim would have liked to say otherwise, but Jhoni wasn’t one to bend the truth with.

  “It will all turn to dust,” Daim agreed. “Those of us with magical ability will soon perish, and only with luck will the rest of mankind survive. There is a glimmer of hope for the long term, but it is the barest chance.”

  “I’ll bet that is where your efforts have been directed of late.”

  Daim nodded, but didn’t say more. He wasn’t that confident that what he intended would be successful, and it wouldn’t matter to Jhoni in the long run. How the man had survived was a miracle, but it wouldn’t be that much longer before the odds, and the plague caught up with him.

  “What of your partners, Hobar and Juda?” Jhoni asked.

  “Hobar was one of the first to catch it,” Daim said slowly. “He died within a week of our victory in the Ruins. Juda has been busy as usual. She has found a way to protect the towers against the attacks of the flowers. I saw her just the other day.”

  Unfortunately Juda was looking poorly. Her eyes were sunken and she showed signs of an advanced case of the infection. She had left to finish the last of the towers. Daim knew he would never see her again.

  “My closest friends are all lost as well,” Jhoni said sadly. “I’m certain my time is coming.”

  Then he smiled. “Since you are here, please come to visit. You know where I live. We can have a drink and remember old times one last time.”

  Daim had much to do, but there was no way he could refuse. He promised to stop by later this evening.

  As Jhoni walked away, Daim turned back and headed for his old studio. Once again the doubts struck him, and he wished he could speak with Frad and confirm the wise old Seer still saw the same for the future. Unfortunately, Frad had been one of those who had been taken early by the advance of the disease.

  With the Rift gone, the creatures and plants released into his world were on their own. They would die out, but it would take time. They were hardy, especially the flowers. The creatures were dying out more quickly, but Frad had foretold of centuries before the flowers would weaken and die away. At the present they were still virulent and spreading across the whole of the world. Mankind would suffer from the plague, a large percentage dying off. A few would survive and carry an immunity that would protect following generations for some time. Eventually the immunity would wear thin and someone would encounter the less common flowers, and the plague would reappear. It would be centuries between cycles, but eventually the plants would lose their power, and man would have a chance to re-emerge. Everything magic would be virtually wiped clean by then.

  Frad had foreseen that a very few humans with the ability for magic would escape. One day in the future, a random mating of genes would result in children being born who would once again have the ability. They would be untrained, and far less skilled than the wizards today. But it would be a start. Daim planned for that day.

  The spawn of the Rift would have a similar effect on the Hoplani and other magical creatures. They would die away in a manner very similar to the wizards. This was good, because while Juda was able to protect the towers against the flowers, they would still fail over time. They would operate for a very long time, or at least most would, and that would contain the Hoplani until then. Some of the remaining creatures from the Rift might bring them down, and over the centuries they would gradually fail and there would be no one to bring them back into service. Without the towers, the Hoplani would be free to overrun the lands of man. Man would be unable to stand against the creatures.

  The Hoplani were formidable even without their magical abilities. Daim had been present for the study of one of the beasts they had killed. With three rows of large razor sharp triangular teeth set into powerful jaws, they could rip any known animal apart easily. Man was fragile against such jaws. They were large and their skin was incredibly thick, resistant to bow and sword alike. They liked the dark, being born deep in the many caves of the Ruins, but were also at home in bright sunlight. And that was without their magical ability. Add magic to their already impressive strengths and one had a creature that had nearly impenetrable defenses, with only a weakness behind the ears where they could be attacked without magic, plus the ability to toss energy bolts to bring down their opponents.

  Fortunately, the Hoplani would be thinned to near extinction by the time the towers failed. But, like man and wizards, in that distant future viewed dimly by Frad, they would also re-emerge. The same events that would herald the return of a new breed of wizard would also see the surviving Hoplani expand into new herds. Those herds would eventually start to migrate west, and without the towers, and without a corps of wizards to dissuade them, they would overrun the developing lands of man.

  Twenty-five hundred years. Daim shook his head as he continued on his way. Such an incredible time. That was when the re-emergence would begin. How did one plan for events so far in the future? He wished he could be there to guide the emerging wizards in what must be done. Unfortunately, wizards didn’t live any longer than other humans, at least not noticeably so. On the average the lifespan of wizards might be five years or so longer than their non-magical counterparts, and that was mostly because fewer died as a result of disease, or mishap, or war. Two and a half millennia was somewhere between thirty and fifty standard lifetimes. He wasn’t going to make that.

  He also was annoyed that he had been totally unable to find some way to create a time Bypass. Wizards found it quite easy to sidestep the distance between two points and quickly move from place to place. Why shouldn’t there be a way to sidestep the centuries ahead? One with the kind of power he could control shouldn’t be constrained by the normal slow regular pace by which time advanc
ed. But despite his best efforts he had found no way to accomplish this task. That left him to this final, highly chancy means of trying to protect the future.

  He walked down the marble halls, his footsteps echoing off the walls. It was so different now. Always in the past this place would be filled with harried wizards, off about their special tasks. Now there was no one. Other than Jhoni, he’d seen no one on the grounds today. He stepped into his chambers and stopped to look. The place was unchanged. It was as if nothing outside had happened. He could have made a Bypass doorway directly here, but he’d wanted to observe the rest of the Citadel. Now he almost wished he hadn’t done so.

  His eyes took in his shelves of texts. Most of those he would have to relocate. Another task, and one that would take some time. But first, he needed to create the staffs. He’d decided on two of them. They had a special task to perform, and he felt that he should have a backup in case something didn’t work as planned. What he wanted of the staff was far more than had ever been attempted before, yet it was essential that the staff survived and performed the envisioned function, or the plan would fail miserably.

  Hours later he stood back and smiled one of his increasingly rare smiles these days. Before him stood a pair of identical staffs. They were unlike anything he’d ever created. They were something others would have marveled at. They were perhaps his finest work ever. Each was infused with magical power, stored within a crystal embedded deep in the core of each. The stored power could be recharged by drawing on the power of a wizard once the staff had linked to him. The staff would enhance the power of anyone with magic, but more importantly they were to become active after the twenty-five centuries had passed and seek out a budding wizard as he became active in his magic. If one staff failed, the other would be triggered. Certain skills were required. Frad had foreseen that one, perhaps two such individuals would emerge. The staff would locate and link to him. Equally important, the staff would nominally transport the individual to the special hideaway Daim had been preparing. Failing that, it would guide him in the ways of magic and create an urge in the person to seek out the special place in the Ruins where the rest of Daim’s plan could be pursued.

  Daim set the two staffs to one side. He walked over and retrieved the small ring he had also created. It was a simple thing. Only the metal of the band was special, but it was not something that anyone but a wizard would place any value in. He’d been forced to use the metal rather than something more common because the connection to the flesh of the finger was so important. The common quartz crystal was perfect, although he’d used his magic to make it appear somewhat clouded with imperfections through the core. The ring wasn’t attractive, and not something to be coveted. It was, however, every bit as important as the staff to his plans. In fact, the staff’s efforts would be meaningless if the ring failed to perform.

  Daim set the materials aside. No one would bother them in the short time he would be gone. He wrapped them in a special ward just in case. Then he turned and left. He would spend the evening in conversation with the last of his kind he was likely to see. Jhoni would have stories to tell and they could recall old friends. Daim walked through the empty Citadel and across the grounds to where Jhoni lived just off the grounds. He found the place without trouble, having visited it many times before when he was much younger.

  “Jhoni,” Daim hollered as he pushed open the entrance. Jhoni hadn’t responded to his knock.

  The door opened smoothly, and Daim stepped into the silence of the room. “Jhoni,” he shouted once again.

  No answer. Worried, Daim stepped through the greeting room into the more private area of the residence. He didn’t have to go far. Sitting in a large comfortable chair, Jhoni faced the entrance, his eyes unseeing. The elder wizard was dead. Daim couldn’t tell if it was the result of the disease, or simply that age had finally caught up with the older man. The timing was unfortunate. Daim stepped over and closed the eyes of his old friend, then slowly left to return to the Citadel. Outside, he no longer had time to walk. He opened a Bypass to his office, then retrieved the staffs and the ring, and then Bypassed all the way to the Ruins.

  Chapter 62

  Daim let his eyes wander around the exquisite chamber he had created here under the Ruins. It had taken a great deal of magical skill to hollow such a large volume out of the solid stone and then infuse it with magic to ward it against intrusion and damage, and even as best he could, the march of time. He was impressed that he still had the ability to perform such wonders. He could well be the last of his kind. Multiple trips had been required to transport the texts from his library back at the Citadel. He had even raided the main library there to augment the materials with tomes that he felt should be represented. It was theft, pure and simple, but there was no longer anyone left there to care what he did. If any of the Council still lived, they were hidden away from the world foolishly hoping to cheat the fate that awaited them.

  He found it amusing that he had built this sanctuary here in the very heart of the Ruins where everything had begun. The location would help protect the hideaway over the centuries from human and animals alike. When the time came, the chosen one would not have to worry about the hazards and the distance into the forsaken land. He would be brought here by magic, bypassing all of the misery outside.

  Daim tried to decide what he had left to do. His face was grim. He had soured over the past couple of weeks. The effort had been harder than he could have imagined. Not just the physical effort in moving everything here and arranging it properly, but the weight of the loss of everything he’d ever known. The loss of Jhoni had touched something inside him. It changed him. He was harder and more determined than ever that he would succeed. He vowed that nothing would stand in his way. There would be a cost, both to himself and those he encountered in the future. So be it. He couldn’t help but think about how many had died. The Citadel was nothing but a deserted building that would crumble back into the ground before anyone emerged who would care. The town around the center was empty as well. He’d found no sign of anyone, wizard or ungifted still alive there. If a few more had to die later, it would be for the cause of rebuilding. He wouldn’t let that deter him.

  The two staffs, wonders even if he did say so himself, were in their holders along the back wall where he’d placed them. The ring waited for his final action. He picked it up and then set it down on the wooden case behind the chair. He would finish that task, charging it with a copy of his memories and knowledge after sleeping. He would need to be strong and refreshed for the optimum result. He was aware of perhaps two other wizards who understood the technique of savings memories to a crystal. He wondered if either of the others had done such a thing before they had succumbed to the plague. Once he had completed this final task, he would have done everything that he could do to prepare.

  The staffs would wait until the proper time, so far in the future. Once triggered, they would search the lands for the proper individual. Daim had no way of knowing who he might be. It might be a woman. That would indeed be strange. The staff would find him at a young age when his abilities were just starting to manifest themselves. Once the person was located, the staff would wipe the existing memories from the conscript and transport him here. The total clearing of the preadolescent mind would provide the necessary canvas for the overwriting of Daim’s own memories. The process was necessary if he were to establish the necessary control over the body selected and not be left with conflicting personalities within the same body. This was perhaps unfair to whomever was chosen. That individual’s future being forfeit to allow Daim’s plan to go forward, but the wizard couldn’t help that. He was willing to sacrifice one young wizard’s heritage for a chance to save the future world.

  He expected to awaken to find his memories embedded in the new body during the early years of the re-emergence. He was surprised that one of great ability who matched his needs would be found at such an early time in the return of magic, but Frad had been quite certain that
two such individuals would be found. One very early and another nearly fifty years later. Perhaps it was a balance that nature maintained, to have several so strong after several millennia of none at all. What mattered was that he would be there at the beginning and would know what to expect. He would be able to seek out and train the fledgling wizards and have a formidable force in place to be able to protect against the Hoplani once they also re-emerged from their underground caves in the Ruins. He had already stocked Wizard’s Point, the operations center from which the perimeter of the Ruins had long been monitored. That would be his base of operations during the early years. This place would be his private sanctuary. It was far too small to accommodate the force he would need to assemble.

  Once the borderlands that would seal off the Ruins were again secure, the wizards he had found would be able to help the non-gifted humans as they sought to regain the level of society that had been lost. It would take time, probably a couple of centuries, but with the plagues a thing of the past, there would be hope to regain the former glory of the land. There would probably be those who would resist, but they didn’t have the experience and knowledge of what had happened like himself. He would not be deterred by anyone. This would all be reversed. He had pledged himself to it. Then, from his private library, the glories of this age would be remembered.

  It was done! Daim had charged the ring and he gingerly set it on the shelf. Once it was placed on the finger of the chosen one so many years from now, he would essentially be reborn. He knew it would be strange. The body would be that of a youth, yet his mind would recall himself as an old man. It would take time to adapt. His new self would be powerful, but nowhere near as strong as he was today. He would have to accept the loss in ability. Still, based on Frad’s visions, he expected to be more than powerful enough.