by Paul Edwards
Chapter four
I left the pub and climbed back onto my donkey. I would now have to visit my other former apprentice who taught in the city, Shelley.
Janet and Shelley hated each other, if I showed any favor to one the other would respond by acting aloof and disinterested the next time I would visit.
Gods, friends are a lot of work.
I soon arrived at a immense imposing building, he facade was decorated with large columns and many brightly colored statues. The sign over the main entrance read: The Egyptian school of magic and art.
I slid off my donkey and tied it up, I entered the school and walked down a hallway. Unlike Janet's school Shelley's was full of bright colors, the walls were festooned with paintings and the there were sculptures and potted plants in everywhere.
There were no lecture halls, just wide open spaces covered in beautiful wooden floors on top of which were strewn tables and comfortable chairs. The entranceways had no doors in them.
I walked past a large reflective surface and casually looked at myself, I had to stifle a gasp when I saw my reflection.
Wow... Janet sure had missed her calling, my hair had been colored in different shades of green, red and orange. The effect was one of tree leaves in autumn, when I shook my head slightly it gave the illusion of leaves rustling in the wind.
Well... I guess that pushy woman at the cosmetic counter was right after all... she had insisted I had had an Autumn complexion.
My eyes had been rimmed in kohl as well, but not in the utilitarian way I would have done but with beautiful thin lines and curls. My lips were bright red and seemed to shine with an inner light.
I unconsciously fussed with my hair for a few seconds as I felt a rare feeling of vanity.
I'll have to get a picture, I thought to myself, before my rebellious hair fought off the styling gel and colored dyes, and reverted back to its normal uncontrollable mop.
I knocked on Shelley's door frame before I entered her office. Her office had a door but it was open. She was sitting behind a modern glass topped desk typing on a laptop.
"Oh! Hi Kem," she said her face brightening. "What brings you here?"
"Um... Janet wanted some help... some ancient magic that needed to be dealt with."
"Oh... hmm... I'll bet it was that Archimedes machine, who knew it would be so hard to turn off," Shelley was trying hard to cover up an involuntary smile.
I knew instantly she must have turned it on.
"That's why you're all dolled up, to fetch Archimedes, I'm surprised you'd agree to that... knowing your stub... um... steadfastness."
"She made an excellent argument," I said.
Shelley probably knew what had happened already anyway, the two of them had spies everywhere to keep tabs on what the other was doing.
It was just then my unborn child gave my insides a good kick.
"Geez... gonna be a football player," I said as I put a hand on my belly, "or is it soccer?"
"Soccer... football is the one where they mostly carry the ball."
I didn't follow sports, Shelley had explained most of the modern games to me when I first arrived in the future, she had been an avid football fan once, even going to the live games.
Thanks to her I knew the basic rules and if I had to I could watch knowledgably. It was an odd game, some of the points were scored by kicking the ball through what looked like an upside down goal, three points if it was far away one if it was closer.
"Like basketball Kem," Shelley had explained to me.
Other points were scored by making an artful play.
"The guys in the striped shirts judge the catch or run, if it's spectacular they award points to it, that's why they're always waving their arms." Shelley had said.
I remember asking her why some of the team leaders were always reading stuff written on their wrists.
"These guys are hit in the head a lot, they don't think so good, so they write down what they gotta do."
There was always a final game at the end of the season to anoint a champion, how the two teams were selected was determined by some kind of complicated process no one really understood.
There was always feasting and much drink when this game was watched on television, it reminded me of the religious festivals I had attended in my youth.
I chatted with Shelley for a while, catching up on all the latest news. Her apprentice Gwenny had started teaching classes at the school, as well she and Janet had assembled a small team in order to travel the world to find new students.
"Janet just wants nerdy braniacs," Shelley said, an expression of annoyance on her face.
"Um... then just remember... it's up to you make sure that people that don't shine so brightly get picked too."
"Yaa... whatever... I figure I'll just pick people that piss off Janet."
I felt an immense jolt of irritation, the two of them refused to act like adults, gods you don't have to like someone to be able to work with them.
'Um... so where is this team?" I asked nonchalantly.
"Oh, we sent them to work with the archaeologists, you know, to toughen them up."
I was back on my donkey. I had it trot as quickly as I deemed safe. This area of the city had been mostly catalogued. It should be safe... except that this was The City of Magic, safety was a relative thing.
Damn, why didn't I bring my stupid bracelet, I had nothing to protect myself with. I nervously looked around at the empty buildings as the donkey clip clopped along the dusty road. The open windows reminded me of sinister eyes, watching me.
I finally saw the archaeologist's headquarters come into view. It was a three strory old stone building that had once been a large Inn.
I slid off the donkey then ordered it to stay still, being magical it immediately froze in place. I slowly opened the buildings large wooden door then waddled through it, I used my hands to steady my large belly. I closed the door behind me.
"Hello" I yelled. I was alone.
The first floor of the building had been the Inn's Pub and Restaurant. There was still a long wooden bar along one wall, the rest of the floor space was taken up with equipment, weapons and ammunition boxes.
I noticed there were full whiskey bottles stored on the shelves behind the bar.
Archaeologist's were a rough hard drinking bunch used to settling disputes with their fists.
I heard the door open behind me, I turned quickly stifling a gasp.
It was Dr. Cheng Chan, expert in far eastern architecture. He stared at me, his face expressionless, he grabbed the fedora sitting on his head and then tossed it onto a nearby had stand.
Archaeologist's always wore fedora's for some reason.
"What brings you here?" he asked as he walked towards the bar.
"You have some intern's here I want to speak to them."
Chan grabbed a whiskey bottle then poured himself a large shot which he promptly downed in a single gulp.
"Yaa... used them to clear the Cthulhu temple."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"Everything here's dangerous... ma'am."
He poured and downed another shot.
I heard the door open again, Chan's hand jerked as he quickly put it on top of the holstered revolver that was hanging on a belt around his waist.
The chief archaeologist Harry Camp walked in.
"Lost them all huh Chan... death means nothing to you?"
"They knew the risks." Chan grabbed the bottle again.
I felt my heart start to hammer in my chest.
"What... what happened?" I said, I felt tears start to well up in my eyes.
They both turned and looked at me, a sudden look of concern appeared in their eye's, then their images blurred into a kaleidoscope of color's.
A young man and woman appeared where the archaeologists had been.
The young woman ran up to me and hugged me.
"Oh... I'm sorry Kem... we were just joking."
"By Sobek... I said pu
tting a hand on my chest trying to still my heart. I could have gone into labor!"
They both stood still, staring at me with guilty expressions.
"Well... no harm done... you're lucky, the little guy has got it pretty good, doesn't want to leave quite yet," I said sternly.
The girls name was Chinda she was from Thailand, the man was named Roger, he had come from the great frozen wasteland to the North.
"How come you're not helping the archaeologists?" I asked as I carefully sat on one of the bar stools.
"Oh they won't let us near anything, they just hand us notes and pictures everyday to give to Janet and Shelley," Chinda said.
"Really?"
"Ya... say we don't have enough combat training," said Roger.
"That's comforting, what do you do then?"
"Oh... um... we still snoop around. We are sorcerer's after all, anything sneaks up, I just give em the five fingers of fury!"
Chinda crouched into some kind of martial arts stance then pointed her left hand, the fingers flew off of it and bounced against the wall.
"Ow!" she squealed.
The fingers flew back onto her hand.
"Gotta work on that spell still."
"Your disguise spell is pretty impressive," I said.
"Ya... it was our first year final project, we had to build a logic machine to do it."
"No computers I hope?"
I hated spells that relied on modern technology. The machines of this era were impressive but they were slow and unreliable compared to magic. The last thing a sorcerer needed was a computer crashing or rebooting when in the midst of a crisis.
"Nope... had to take a bunch of logic courses though... boring stuff."
"So... um... you guys are gonna start finding new students huh?" I asked.
"Yep... we're all prepared," Chinda said as she waved her hands in an odd way.
A large briefcase appeared on the floor in front of her. She opened it up and pulled out a large sheaf of papers.
"IQ tests, personality tests... um... basic math quiz's... forms for a personal essay... etcetera."
"How do you test someone's personality?" I asked curiously.
"Um... some Briggs and um... Stratton... thing... we're all like shy or... um... blab a lot...or something."
"Myers-Briggs, it's very scientific, it measures the four aspects of personality," Roger said in a scholarly way.
I didn't need a personality test to figure out which of the two had been selected for the task by Janet, or Shelley for that matter.
I looked at two of them, they had changed so much in just a few short months of training.
It had been I who had originally selected all the students that were currently enrolled.
I had met Roger in a hellish city far to the north, my husband a former athlete, had dragged me to a reunion of a team he had been on as a young man. They had won some kind of important championship.
It had been January, the city was an indescribable nightmare of cold, violent winds and snow. The air had been so bitter I struggled just to breathe.
I had stayed in my hotel as much as I could even eating meals there.
I had eaten some my meals at the hotel bar and Roger had been the bartender. I had gotten to know him over the four days I had stayed in the hotel. He was a struggling university student, he had reminded me of a young boy I had known in my youth, one who had been profoundly sensible, honest and hardworking.
"Give me the suitcase," I said.
Chinda put the sheaf of paper back in and closed it, then handed it to me. I grabbed it as I stood up and then walked out the front door back outside. I put the suitcase in the middle of the street and then opened it exposing all the papers.
I had one spell I had incorporated into myself years ago. Something that had been so useful that I could not fathom being without it.
I put my index finger on my thumb and then flicked it towards the open suitcase, a red hot coal flew out and landed in the middle of the pile of paper igniting it immediately.
I heard Chinda and Roger gasp as the growing flame consumed everything.
"There, the forms are all filled out," I said.
"How... how... do we pick people then?" Chinda asked.
"Yes... we need empirical measurement," said Roger.
"You're gonna have to use your judgement."
"But what if we're wrong!" They both said in chorus.
"Everyone makes mistakes... I selected Shelley and Janet."
They both started giggling.
'Meet me in an hour at in my quarter's, I have an errand to do"
