Tomorrow's Spacemage

by Timothy Ellis

When I appeared in front of her, Tasha took a long look at my face, and hugged me.

  Forty Three

  "There's something I need to know," I asked the mages after dinner.

  "Lots of things I’d expect," grinned the basics mage.

  The grin died quickly when my face didn’t change.

  "What's up Thorn?" asked the battle mage. "You look like the world is about to end."

  "It is. Not for another two years, but shortly after then, this planet becomes an ice ball for millennia. For all intents and purposes, it will be uninhabitable."

  They looked at me in shock.

  "Surely not," said the creation mage.

  "How do you know?" asked the moving mage.

  "Oracle. The Matriarchy have one who does the future. I had her look. It was much worse than I expected."

  "What do you mean, you expected?" asked the healing mage.

  I looked at them, but said nothing.

  "What did you do?" asked the battle mage, eventually.

  "Here's a question for you," I said, ignoring his question. They already knew, but nothing about it made sense. "We all have this place where what we vanish is moved to. Right?" They all nodded. "So even though I was in the future, all my vanished stuff still went to the same place."

  "Correct," confirmed the moving mage.

  "So why the time shift?"

  I could tell they didn’t get it, and I let them think about it.

  "How do you know there was a time shift?" asked the moving mage.

  "Now? Or then?" He looked even more confused. "I spent two years learning how to live in a society so different from this one, at first I couldn’t even understand what they were saying. For a long time, I had no magic at all. When I finally did figure how, I started vanishing very small things. Nothing of consequence. Then I got a move wrong, and slavers kidnaped me, taking me into space. About a day later, I removed a hand at the wrist trying to get rid of a gun pointed at me. Still no consequence."

  "Did he survive it?" asked the healing mage.

  "No. I force punched the other guy so hard he practically broke in half." They winced. "After several weeks of living alone on a space ship I knew nothing about, I ended up on station. I saved Jen, who knew how to fly ships, and we busted out of there, making a mess in the process. Still nothing consequential. But then other ships chased us, and sent missiles at us. I vanished them, as being the only thing I could think of to do at the time. This went on for weeks, although I progressively became more inventive about how to get rid of them."

  "What's a missile?" asked the battle mage. "How much damage can one of them do?"

  "The small ones, take out this mini-village as if it didn’t exist, and leave a hole in the ground." They winced again. "The big ones, and in my own defense, I couldn’t tell which was which at the time, would simply remove this island to below the water level, and no-one would know it ever existed."

  "How can anyone build something with such power?" asked the basics mage.

  "It takes a lot of time, but I think all roads lead a civilization there eventually, if it lasts long enough, and has enough conflict to keep the need to develop new weapons bubbling along. And in any case, it's nothing to what I can do myself. And what I can do is nothing to what I'm told someone will do in the future."

  A shudder went down my spine, and my head waggled from side to side a few times. I got a grip. They were staring at me.

  "But here's the thing. When I went back, the civilization I’d spent two years living in was gone as if it never existed, but there was no damage to the hills where my vanishing spot was. My shit didn't kill the civilization, as I thought it should have, given the city I lived in was within the blast radius. No signs of blast, at all."

  "So you think it all came back here?" asked the moving mage.

  "Is coming back here," I corrected. "I started vanishing missiles a bit more than two weeks over two years from when I time jumped from here. As you are all alive, the time I spent there is obviously being shifted, so when they arrive here is offset by how long after I arrived there, and then how long between vanishings."

  Their eyes had glazed over. Mine probably had as well.

  "None of that makes any sense," said the moving mage.

  It was unanimous then.

  Forty Four

  "You're no fun tonight."

  Tasha was straddling me, arms straight, holding herself above me. Her eyes bored into mine. When I said nothing, she sighed, and rolled off.

  "Anyone would think you have the weight of the world on your shoulders."

  I sighed. There was silence for a while.

  "Talk to me Thorn."

  There was an 'or else' tone attached.

  "What do you want me to say?"

  "What happened today? It's like your heart has frozen."

  "Good guess."

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  I explained it to her.

  There was silence for a good minute, before she started laughing. I was so offended, I moved back to the beach to be alone. The laughing stopped. Just for the sake of propriety, in case any of the kids were running around loose, I added clothes to myself. The whales I’d been listening to were silent. Silence in the dark seemed like a good thing, but even in a comfortable beach lounge, I couldn’t sleep.

  Tasha appeared next me about ten minutes later. She sighed, and took the empty lounge she usually used.

  "How did you do that?"

  "The basics mage told me where you were, and the moving mage sent me here."

  "You trusted him to move someone else?"

  "He's been practicing. They all have." She paused. "I'm sorry I laughed at you."

  "Why did you?"

  "Because you look so cute all scrunched up, worrying about things you can't control."

  She laid a hand on my shoulder before I moved again.

  "Why do you think this is a problem only you have to deal with?"

  "Because I made it."

  "Are you sure about that?"

  "Pretty sure. Yes."

  "Let me see if I understand you. The civilization you spent two years living in vanished. Not your doing, but all on someone else who changed the timeline in the future, and affected the past. My civilization is gone, here and now, as is the Orange people's. Also not your problem, since for whatever reason, we came back further than when they began. So them being missing is not on you either. In two years the world gets cold. Fine, this is on you, but you have two years to do something about it."

  "What?" I asked, sounding depressed.

  "What?" she exclaimed, obviously not understanding my what.

  "I'm asking you what I can do about it. You tell me."

  "I don’t know off the top of my head, but why are you keeping this to yourself. The four of us are here to help you, and you have five mages who want to help as well. Why aren't you talking to all of us as a group?"

  "Why…"

  "There is no why. Ten heads are better than one."

  "Fine."

  I sighed again. And now, I felt a sort of deathly tiredness.

  "Are we staying out on the beach all night?"

  I moved us back to bed. But I didn't take my clothes off, simply turning over away from her, and trying to sleep.

  The whales started singing again.

  Forty Five

  I was woken by an impact on the wards I’d left around the village.

  Not even bothering to get out of bed, I moved directly there. I even managed the horizontal to vertical switch without even thinking about it. A mage was in the process of hitting the wards again. He stopped when I appeared.

  "Your king demands your presence."

  "An early riser, is he?"

  The mage didn't rise to the bait. He merely looked at me until I nodded, and vanished. I wasn’t in the mood for demanding rulers, but since I had one, and more sleep wasn’t one of the options I was choosing from, the decision to go find out what he wanted was an easy one
.

  My sight showed him to be on his throne, and a completely different one to the one his father had used. I moved to outside the main gate to the castle walls, and waited for the guards there to notice me. Obviously expecting me, the gate opened, and they waved me through. One followed me, a half dozen paces behind.

  When I reached the doors to the keep, he turned, and started walking back, while another guard opened this door, and also waved me through.

  The throne room inside was packed, with a wide isle down the middle. Everyone appeared to be in their best finery, and smiles were on faces. Painted on in some cases, but everyone was at least making an effort for some reason.

  Someone I took to be the castle seneschal, waved me to come forward. I kept the irritation off my face, and walked slowly forward, stopping before the raised dais. I looked askance at the new king, who I saw was older than I thought he'd be, somewhere in his mid-twenties. Behind him and to the side, sat a woman I assumed to be his queen, and a nanny with a very young baby.

  Obviously the crowning of the new king had been completed, and whatever celebrations it had merited. I made a mental note to tell my mages, since no-one had obviously tried to.

  The King looked me in the eyes.

  "You may now swear fealty, my mage."

  I frowned. It was an automatic response, and the King's face hardened as he saw it. Wards appeared between us, as other mages in the room sought to protect him from me. I cast my sight around for a few moments, as no-one moved or said anything.

  I turned my head to look at the crowd behind me.

  "There will be a slight pause in proceedings. Don't go away."

  I moved the king and I to his personal eating chamber, and sat us both at the table, sitting opposite each other, but not in touching distance.

  "Order breakfast for two please. We may as well eat while we get a few things sorted out."

  His anger burned, but instead of doing anything stupid, he clapped his hands. A servant appeared, and he ordered food be brought. We waited in silence until it appeared, covering a good deal of the table, duplicated for each of us.

  I made a point of not talking while we ate, letting him stew for the time being. I was surprisingly hungry, and the food was really good. The wine was even drinkable, but I didn’t do more than sip it. Finally I stopped eating, allowed the servant to wash my hands, and sat there waiting for the king to either say something, or finish eating himself. As it turned out, he finished eating first. I took the opportunity to start things in the right direction.

  "Let us be clear about a few things. You are king of this kingdom, and I was once a subject, but am no longer. It has nothing to do with my being a mage, and everything to do with events in my life so far. I simply do not consider myself part of this kingdom anymore. And haven’t been for a long time."

  He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again.

  "I do have ties here still, but these will be changing in the near future. I will inform you of how these changes affect you and the kingdom at a leaders meeting in the next day or so."

  "Leaders meeting?"

  "There are five kingdoms, for want of a better word, on this land mass, and the person ruling each will be meeting all the others to discuss the issue of peace, and what happens in the future. I've already spoken to all of them, they've had things to say on what they want to happen, and I've left them thinking about what more they wish to say when we meet again."

  "Why haven’t we spoken yet?"

  "I thought you'd want some time to adjust to suddenly becoming king, and besides, I had other things to do."

  "Such as?"

  "Keeping innocent mages and their families from being slaughtered."

  "Fine. I approve of that. But you should have checked with me first."

  "No."

  "What?"

  "That's the other thing you need to understand. You cannot command me. I appeared here today because it suited me to, and meeting you was on my list of things to do. But I will never do your bidding."

  "I'm your king."

  "We covered that already." I bit the next words out, so he'd get the message. "You. Are. Not. My. King."

  "I can't have a rogue mage running around my kingdom."

  "And you won't. I and my family currently reside somewhere else. As do the mages and their families from my village. Your father treated them as traitors, even though they did nothing wrong towards the kingdom. As such, they're loyalty to the kingdom was severed by his actions, and they and their families will be going with me when I leave. We will keep away as much as we can in the meantime, but there is work to do in our village still, and you will not keep us from it." I held up my hand to stop him responding. "I will not interfere with your kingdom and how it's run, as long as it's run by a fair and just king. Should you be threatened, I will protect you. Should you threaten others unjustly, I will destroy you."

  His eyes widened. I moved the conversation on quickly.

  "This land has been at war for too long, and there will be peace. At the moment, this is happening because I am who I am, and no-one dares cross me. But this is unacceptable to everyone, and as I said, there will be a meeting to work out how peace can be made permanent. What is it you want?"

  He had trouble shifting mental gears.

  Forty Six

  With at least a temporary truce in place with the new king, I moved everyone back to the village.

  The wards and walls remained in place, just in case. I had no intention of the people move being permanent, but they were missing their friends and relatives.

  The mages all had tasks. The talks with the new king had at least brought a number of things into focus in my mind, and the mages, who'd had a few days now to practice working together in new ways, needed to work out what was possible, necessary, and essential. Their families were also tasked with assessing the mood of the entire village. While the king had his own plans, I wanted to make sure the village shared them.

  The girls wanted to spend some time in a real functioning olde worlde village. I was expecting a request for a shuttle as soon as the first of them decided the facilities were not up to standard.

  We walked around for a while, me attracting double takes when people realized who I was. The reactions varied. Some showed wonder at my age and older looks. Others took in my companions, and I could see the wonder as to why I was in their company, or they were in mine, coupled with confusion about how we were dressed. I swapped greetings with a few old friends, and people who'd been a daily part of my life, only a short time ago in theirs.

  I recalled none of their names, and almost all of them were uncomfortable meeting me again. Partly I think this was due to them all thinking I was dead. Being dead, didn’t improve your social standing, it seemed. And it could have been a lot to do with how adult I now looked.

  So a grin reaction was unexpected.

  The teenager was walking past, ogling the girls, when recognition hit him. There was a moment of shock, before the grin let loose, and continued growing. He stopped.

  "Thorn?"

  He looked familiar. Not a friend, by any means. Not someone I’d spent much time with at all. But one of those people who were noteworthy, and unforgettable for something specific. It took a moment.

  "Hi," I said warily. "How's the chest?"

  "You remembered. Fully healed, but no thanks to you. What happened to you?"

  "Life."

  He laughed. I didn’t remember him as the laughing sort.

  "Couldn’t have happened to a better person."

  The laughing stopped, but the grin was still huge. He appeared to be waiting for something.

  "Going to introduce me?"

  "No."

  "Why not?"

  "Because believe it or not, I don’t want you getting hurt again."

  The grin slipped, but went back up.

  "And why would being introduced to these lovelies, result in me being hurt?"

  "Apart from all of them be
ing able to take you apart with one hand tied behind their backs…"

  "We're not interested in children," finished Jen.

  The grin deflated.

  "Is he any use as weight for bench pressing?" Lea asked Jess.

  She struck a weightlifter pose. His eyes almost popped out.

  "Nah. Not enough meat on him."

  The grin turned to worry. But he defiantly turned back to me.

  "You always were an arsehole Thorn."

  "Don't do it," said Tasha quietly.

  I'd been about to drop him in a hole.

  "Take care," I said instead, and began walking away.

  "You don't remember my name," he yelled after me, "do you!"

  The voice was triumphant, but when I looked around at him, he sprinted off.

  "What did you do to him?" asked Lea.

  "He was the first time I force punched someone while losing my temper."

  The three of them cringed, but Tasha laughed.

  "How bad was it?" asked Jen.

  "I spent a week knocking down an old wall in punishment."

  Tasha lost it.

  "I meant him. What happened to him?"

  "Went clear over the compound wall. A week under the care of the healing mage. I never asked how bad it was, and they never told me. Apparently he recovered."

  "What was that taunt about?" asked Tasha, her mirth now under control.

  "I don’t know."

  "Who would?"

  "I'll find out."

  We kept walking towards the town hall. Well, village hall, but I think now in terms of my second life education, rather than my childhood. The village wasn’t a town by any means, but the building name still stuck.

  I opened mind speak to the basics mage.

  "Do you remember the kid I punched over the wall?"

  "What of him?"

  "I just met him again. There was something very off about the whole thing. How badly did I hurt him?"

  "Broken ribs. A few bruised internal organs. He was healed in a week, but the tenderness took months to go away. We kept him away from you."

  "Has he chosen yet?"

  "A few months before you did."