by R N Skye
“I healed her little brothers broken wing.” Ava confessed.
Laura smiled, “Ava darling, it was surely a test and you passed perfectly. Gryphons are magical in nature; they are pure lumen, they do not break.”
Ava blushed, “Wow it’s good to know that I made the right choice even when I thought no one was watching.” Shane reached over and gave her hand a squeeze.
With a sigh of a man after a very, very, long day’s work, Soaris concluded. “With the accomplishment of these two things Laura and I are now free to return to Elios. The Plan of Ahhan and Eliom is nearly complete. Shane has restored magic and is ready to stand before the Arc and physically promise to live the Laws and pronounce Kolaria the bride of Kuo’irus.”
“There is only one thing that could keep me on Eliom for a few days more,” smiled Laura. “I would love to attend the wedding of my son and help my future daughter-in-law prepare for her wedding with her mother and aunt.”
“Oh would you,” Ava burst into happy tears. As both her and Laura stood and hugged each other fiercely.”
“This begs the question,” pondered Shane, “What about Allion and the weird red lumen filled tower craft and the war. Are you saying that it’s my entire problem now?”
Soaris reached over and patted his son on the shoulder. “It always was son, it always was.”
“Not to put a damper on anything here,” Shane said somewhat judiciously. “Judging by what the Allyant possessed king is doing we probably need to get the wedding done sooner than later. What do you say Ava? Will you marry me in the Valley of the Arc? It’s quite beautiful.”
Looking out at the stars Ava smiled, “Shane, I knew from the moment that we met that things with us would be unpredictable. Looking out on this wondrous sky I can’t imagine a more beautiful and romantic place for a proposal. Knowing the circumstances like I do, nothing sounds better than a small wedding anywhere as long as it’s with you. My answer is yes.”
~~~~~
After sleeping the morning away in Leo’s office, that afternoon Kaysee managed to get some work done and felt like she had had the best sleep she had had in weeks. By the end of the day Leo insisted that he walk her home or at least to the trolley stop.
On a whim he had invited her to join him for dinner at a local small café that he often frequented. Having nothing better to do she soon found herself having a good time with the professor and many of the local refugees that had been there for about as long as she had; some she realized she knew as they greeted her as one of the group. Before long several of the small tables were pushed together in the center of the room and all were having a good time. She felt a little envious at Leo’s popularity among the many magetechs that frequented the café; especially the women that seemed to be very complimentary to him. The envy soon wore off though as Leo casually put his arm around her shoulder and took multiple opportunities to compliment her and boast to the group about how he wouldn’t be able to do half of what he did if it wasn’t for Kaysee and her contributions to his research.
The conversations went from topic to topic until they circled around to the war between Infin and Luion. “I think that with the return of the glyph mages that that king better rethink is strategy,” guffawed red haired middle-aged magetech that she recognized only as someone she had seen around but didn’t know his name.
“What I can’t figure out is why he started in the first place, “commented a grey haired woman across from Leo. “I worked for Tanners for over eighteen years and one day the building caught fire. We were told to go home and would be told when to return to work. Three days later the war was declared and two weeks after that, soldiers and the CSS were breaking down doors hauling people off. If the glyph mages hadn’t shown up and rescued us I don’t know what I would have done.
“What I want to know is why Allion just declared war on Luion,” said another. “I have a brother that is in the government in Lu Y Onton and Luion and Infin have been great neighbors for hundreds of years. I could see if he declared it on the Sea Pirates of the southern oceans, but Luion? That’s absurd. Half the people from both countries are related. He may as well wage war with himself,” The man concluded uneasily.
A memory that she was positive wasn’t her own flashed through her mind. She saw the king of Infin laughing and joking with someone she couldn’t see on how they were going to consume the lumen of the entire world.
“I think that his intentions are to go beyond Luion,” she interjected solemnly. “I think that he has found some very dangerous artifacts and he intends to control the entire world; He just started with Luion.”
Her words while spoken softly seemed to momentarily silence the ebullient group. “What makes you think that” asked Leo?
“I’m not sure,” She paused thinking for a moment. “I’ve gone on a few of the refugee gatherings with the mage Ava, and Allion isn’t just capturing and imprisoning Luionese, he’s incarcerating and conscripting his own people and is doing things to them with artifacts that seem to control them. I just think that Luion was closest and too little is known about the island nations so out of convenience to misdirect his intentions he declared war on Luion but his goals may be to be king of the entire known world.”
“Well I for one am glad to be here on Coholo in Yllyan. The mage craft that I’ve learned here has been tenfold compared to what I learned at Jehhet University; I’m hoping soon to pass my exams to learn true glyph magic,” he added looking at Leo.
Leo laughed trying to inspire a little bit of joviality back into the conversation. “I was a professor of magetech at Wonstrowd and what I’ve learned here in Yllyan would blow your mind. I hope that everyone will be able to learn what I’ve learned. Thanks to the access that my instructor has to the Arc of Wisdom I have recently been reading a lot of the prior history of Eliom. As well off as we think we have things, we are living like primeval field mice compared to the Luion Glyph Mages and Elios civilization that predated us.”
The topic changed again as one of the magetechs at the table asked, “Professor, Just exactly what is it you do over in that mysterious research building of yours?”
Leo laughed, “Research, what else. Pass your glyph mages test and I’ll hire you on and then you’ll know… but be careful what you wish for; we work long hours.” The group laughed because they know it was true and an understatement.
Much later and feeling good about a day, that although had begun early and badly, it had ended very well. Insisting that she was doing much better and that it was late, Leo needn’t see her all the way home. Kaysee stepped to the curb as the trolley approached. As it came to a stop she impulsively turned and gave Leo a kiss then hurried aboard the car.
Her small home seemed large and empty after the boisterous evening with Leo and friends. Not tired due to her morning nap she decided to make some tea and study some of the glyphs that Leo had been teaching her. Sitting at her kitchen table Kaysee froze as she poured her tea. Had she just heard a voice? Continuing she finished pouring and then she heard it again.
“That’s pretty impressive magic you are studying,” Spoke a voice that seemed to be inside her head. “Too bad you are a non-potent and will never be able to use it,” the voice mocked.
Kaysee stood spilling her tea and looked wildly around the room. “Who said that?” she called out.
“Oh good, you can hear me,” the voice responded. “I was worried that the ring your boyfriend gave you was blocking that too.”
“Where are you,” Kaysee shouted almost in a panic.
“I am right here,” the voice said silkily, “right inside your mind.”
“Well get out, I don’t want you there. Oh,” moaned Kaysee putting her hands uselessly over her ears. “I’m going crazy. This is worse than the nightmares. I need to go see Laura.”
The self-assured voice changed and became serious almost worried. “No need to go see the lumen mage, I want to be out of here just as much as you want me out.”
“
How did you get there,” demanded Kaysee, closing her eyes trying to think what to do?
“You put me here,” spoke the voice in a matter-of-fact reply.
“Oh no I didn’t,” Kaysee said as she sat hard in her chair, hands on her ears and almost slammed her head on the table as she started rocking back and forth. “I’m going crazy she started to sob, I need to see Laura.”
“Calm down, you’re not going insane or anything close.” Kaysee paused her rocking still confused and feeling like she was nearing a nervous breakdown. “Think about it,” continued the voice. “How much magic have you seen lately? I venture to say quite a bit. You are a magetech after all. So why should you be surprised that someone has accidently gotten stuck in your mind?”
“Then get out!” She said louder than she intended. “I don’t know how you got there but I don’t want you in my head one second more.”
“Like I said, you put me here,” the voice said again as if that explained everything.
“How,” Kaysee replied?
“You recall several months ago when you were at the transport station, you call it the overland, and you found that shiny red glass ball?” asked the voice. “That ball held a copy of - for lack of a better term - my personality. When you picked it up, you somehow absorbed me.”
“I recall,” she said remembering the day. The same day that she had first met Ava getting off the train with Laura. The same day that Ava had been attacked and been lumen poisoned.
“I’ve been trying to get your attention ever since then,” the voice lied. “I’ve tried sending you dreams, I’ve tried every magic I knew,” the voice grew contrite,” I’m ashamed to say that I even tried taking control of your body. It wasn’t until your friend gave you that ring today that I recognized what I needed to do in order to focus my voice.”
“Why did you wait until now,” asked Kaysee suspiciously?
“Two reasons, first it took me a while to work it out. Second I felt that if I started speaking to you out of the blue in front of your friends, then not only you, but they themselves would have thought you were going crazy.
Feeling a little more calm and that the tale seemed a little bit plausible Kaysee said, “You seem to know a lot about me, tell me about you, who you are, how did you come to be at the Valee station, in the form of a little red ball?”
“My name is Brenner. I am an explorer. Believe it or not I travelled the stars to be here. As I was traveling the vessel that I was traveling in was running low on Lumen; it uses lumen as fuel. As a precaution in case my starblade should fail between the stars, I made a copy of my thoughts and placed them within the seed; the red globe, that you found. And I cast it to this world in case of emergency.” With a mental sniff, the voice concluded, “Alas my vessel never made it back home and the original me is lost and dead somewhere in the night time between the stars.”
“That’s terrible,” consoled Kaysee as she imagined a man dying alone far from home. “But why me, you can’t just be jumping into the first mind that happens to be walking by?”
“I’m truly sorry about that,” Brenner replied once again in a voice dripping in contrition. “That was an unfortunate accident. What is supposed to happen is it should migrate to the nearest Mage and they are supposed to be able to restore me - which leads to where we are now. I can see from the notes that you were studying that you are learning to be a mage. It so happens that I know a little something about magic myself.”
Kaysee retrieved a dish towel from a rack near the sink and began to wipe up the spilled tea. “I don’t need any help from you, I know plenty of mages. The only thing that you can do for me is get out of my head. Maybe I can get one of them to help restore you,” she suggested.
“I don’t know,” Brenner pondered, “Do they do this type of magic very often? I mean for you they would be careful, but they might not be so careful with me. The spell is fairly simple but it requires a lot of care. I’m not sure they could do it without hurting at least one of us; probably both. Why don’t we work on this together? In two maybe three days tops I could be out of here and buying you and your boyfriend dinner. Although,” the voice in her head paused dramatically, “there is the issue of you being a non-potent.”
“What do you mean non-potent?” Kaysee had spent a lot of time with Leo learning glyphs so that she could be a candidate to make her own instructor. She knew the levels of lumen magic and she knew what a non-potent was; surely he would not have had her go through all of that study if she wasn’t able to use lumen. “My boyfriend,” She paused, she hoped he was her boyfriend, “Leo would have told me if I wasn’t able to use lumen.”
“I’m so, so, sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything,” the voice of Brenner said with sadness in his tone. “He must not have had the heart to tell you.”
“I don’t believe you Leo would never hold the truth from me. What makes you so sure that I can’t use lumen? How do I even know that you know what you are talking about and not just saying things to take control of my mind?” Kaysee didn’t know what to believe, it was true that Leo hadn’t said anything, but what if there was no way to tell. On the other hand Leo was such a kind dear man. If anyone wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings it would be him, but he wouldn’t hold something that important to her from her; now she wasn’t sure. What makes you so sure that I’m a non-potent?”
“For one I’m a mage,” replied Brenner. “For another I am in your head and have been for some time and know what you are capable of.”
“Well if I am not capable of using lumen, “she said feeling tears start to brim – this news was coming hard she realized. “How can I do anything to restore you?”
“I never said you can’t use lumen,” Brenner almost purred. “I said you were a non-potent – a term used by the practitioners of the magic of the Elios. There are more magics in the universe than that practiced by the Elios. Judging by the fact that my orb found you and not a lumen mage I would guess that you are more of a natural mage. A natural mage is one that uses nature to power their magic; they get their lumen from nature.”
Her interest aroused, Kaysee asked the question that the remnant of Brenner had been waiting for. “Can you show me?”
The voice of Brenner seemed to smile, “Absolutely.”
Chapter VIII
The Desmond kitchen was a whirlwind of conversation. Shane and Ava along with Shane’s parents had arrived late from Ricanus’ just in time to find Ari, Leslie and Louisa all concentrating on a multiple screened instructor set up on the kitchen table and they were discussing glyphs like experts with Gerard sitting quietly to the side listening intently.
Gerard was the first to arise from his perch beside his brother the two sisters and greet the four arrivals; the studious women hadn’t even noticed their arrival. “Bonsoir,” Gerard greeted hugging each of them in his normal genial manner. “What a pleasant surprise. Please pull up a chair, can I offer you some refreshment?”
“None for me,” decline Shane. “We just came from a late dinner.”
“Non merci,” echoed Both Ava and Laura as they moved toward a pair of empty chairs on the other side of the table followed by Soaris who nodded negatively as he followed his wife to a third empty chair.
Just as they were about to seat themselves Leslie and Louisa noticed the new arrivals and another round of greetings ensued.
“Why are you studying your instructor,” asked Ava? “You are going to find that after you have your dream instruction tonight you will find that you wasted a lot of time.”
Leslie and Louisa burst out laughing. Ava folded her arms indignantly, “What do you find so entertaining. I’m only speaking from experience and am trying to help.” This only caused the two sisters to increase their mirth.
Finally Leslie stopped laughing and explained. “I was so excited about my morning that instead of going shopping I took Louisa to the Records Center to show her around and it said that I had all rights as Recorder to allow who ever I wanted and I a
sked it to do a genealogy check on Louisa - no surprise, because we are sisters - it said that she is just as thick with lumen ability as I am. So I asked the library to give her a dream instruction on what she needed to know to be a student like me. Then we both went home and promptly took very long naps. When we woke up we both knew what we needed to know. That reminds me, Shane dear, Louisa needs an instructor with the heal glyph guerit and the oprepa glyph – it has something to do with empathy and understanding. Ari said he would make one if you said it was fine by you.”
Shane sighed, what a day, he thought to himself. “Ari, would you mind?” At Ari’s nod he added, “Thank you.” In spired, Shane looked at his future father-in-law with his lumen site and saw what he expected. With a wave that seemed casual, a globe of light appeared in the air in front of Gerard. “Gerard I’m afraid that I’ve brought the heritage of your family down upon you unasked and I can see by looking at you that Ava’s lumen ability doesn’t come from only one side of the family. You and your brother are the same. Would you like to have that heritage restored to you as well? Shane could see a minute look of excited relief as if Gerard had been holding back a feeling of exclusion. However the well-mannered Luion would not allow anything but expressed happiness be shown to those around the room that had begun learning glyph magic.
Gerard looked Shane gratefully in the eye; an expression of unspoken gratitude silently exchanged. “I would mean much me to learn the things that have brought such joy to my wife and daughter.”
Shane smiled with a wink to Ari. “Place you hand in the light and tell me what you feel.”
“It tingles,” Gerard answered after a moment.
“You can remove your hand,” Shane responded. “Get a good night sleep and we’ll talk in the morning about your personal glyphs.”
“That is all,” queried Gerard?
“Um… sweet dreams,” shrugged Shane innocently before adding, “Based on the glyphs that Louisa was given yours will undoubtedly be very interesting.
