Age of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 1)

by Chris Walters

  Emma shook her head no.

  Jordan continued, “They left the firearms. There are firearms lying all around. It is weird, right?”

  That experience of weird things continued in the days since they had that experience. They had come to realize that there no longer was a society, and that people were afraid. They had seen people separated into two categories, the cruel and their victims. They had seen all of this from the sidelines. After what they had seen of the that fight when they were still in the garden, and what they deduced from the bodies at the base, they stayed as far as they could from people.

  In many ways, Jordan thought to himself, their current existence was no different than being trapped in the garden. They were of course mobile, but they had no contact with anyone else, ever. For a guy like Jordan Kane, that was lonely.

  As the vines separated to let them out, and Jordan stretched out in the fading dusk of the west side, he tried to consider where they should go next. Emma had just come out of the nest and was turning toward him when her eyes went wide and she stood perfectly still. Jordan turned slowly, worried that he was going to come face to face with a Mountain Lion or Bear. However, it was a group of soldiers that stood looking right at them. He knew his best option was charm.

  “Oh wow, Dr. Pare,” he said, setting the tone and expectation for their encounter, “finally we meet up with some Soldiers.” He hoped she would follow his lead, but she just stood there staring.

  “Kane?” a voice from the back said and coming into view was an old friend, the scrounge from their unit in the sand, PFC Anthony Johnson. He reached out for a handshake and the large man pulled him into an embrace, fairly uncharacteristic of the Johnson he knew.

  In the embrace, Johnson whispered into his ear, almost imperceptibly, “follow my lead.” Out loud, he turned to his squad, “Guys, this is Specialist Jordan Kane, we were in Shogun’s battalion in the sand.” The men around all seemed to relax a bit and one came forward who didn’t look very military at all and had a gi top with no sleeves on it. “Kane, this is our unit’s Tiger, Vance.”

  Jordan stuck his hand out but the man just scowled at him and Johnson corrected him, “No, brother, like this.” Johnson bowed at the waste a low bow. “Always bow lower than he does to show respect.” Jordan followed Johnson’s lead and bowed low. The scowl on the Tiger’s face gave way to a look of dismissiveness.

  Jordan pointed to Emma, “this is my friend, Dr. Emma Pare.” The men all pricked up their ears at this, like they had not seen a doctor in some time. Even the Tiger was interested.

  Vance spoke, “Alright, let’s take them with us. Shogun Fine will want to meet a doctor.”

  Jordan looked to Johnson and was about to ask, “Fine?” but was cut short when Johnson barely shook his head to bring him up short. Johnson turned to the group, and said, “Okay Kane, fall in. You are responsible for your doctor; we are headed back to the compound.”

  Jordan and Emma walked in between the men, and he tried to convey to her through only looks that she should just go along. He really hoped she would do so.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  Every time they stopped, Cliff would spend time readying stones. The entire group had given him the stones from rings and earrings and necklaces. Most of these were used for light, which Kyle would imprint into them. Though he was twelve and had what he considered to be a limited talent, he was the person most researching the use of this new power, or magic, or whatever it was. He had learned a few things, and Ted had asked if he would tell them all at the next stop.

  As it was past dusk and into the early evening, he was readying a list in his mind of just what he would convey. It was hard to concentrate while also trying to make sure not to stumble in the dark. Ted had decided they would not use lights in the open after what had happened at the Air Force Academy.

  Shortly after Cliff had joined this group, they had met up with some folks from the Academy, who had brought them back to the Commandant. The Academy had basically set up a camp at the football stadium and the nearby sports complex that included a basketball stadium. It was all very military and Cliff found it kind of fun. The problems had come when the group began to show their abilities.

  It seemed that some of the cadets had shown abilities, but the leadership had decided it was disruptive and told people they could stop using them or be barred from the grounds. They had already lost over a hundred cadets, who had chosen banishment over not using these new powers. Now they had a group of thirty people who embraced their abilities. The Commandant had ordered them not to use them, or to leave. Ted had taken a vote, and it was close, but the group had decided to comply. They had apparently had a similar experience before Cliff had joined them.

  The situation had come to a head when some cadets found out the group were practicing their abilities whenever they went for walks. Ted had tried to reason with the base’s leadership, but they had all been banished. As a parting gift, Cliff had presented the Commandant with two light gems, but the man refused to touch them.

  He still wondered about the Hermit. He had disappeared on the day that Cliff had joined the Black Forest group, as they called themselves, and no one had seen him since. That was about two weeks ago. Many in the group thought Cliff had made him up, because even a great tracker like Natalee could find no sign of a grown man who had travelled with Cliff.

  They made camp and Cliff prepared for his little speech in front of a bunch of adults. As they gathered, Ted put five light gems before Cliff, so everyone could see him. Ted stood and addressed the group. None of the get-togethers were mandatory in the group, but everyone seemed intent on listening anyway. It was a lot of pressure.

  Ted cleared his throat, “As most of you know, Cliff has spent every waking hour he has been with us studying the nature of our new found abilities, and the gems. He has agreed to tell us what he now knows. Cliff?”

  Cliff stood up and looked at what he could see of the group. To an outside observer this looked like a group around a camp-fire, and that is just how Ted planned it. Maxine’s dogs were guarding and useful sentries.

  “Hi, Everybody,” Cliff started nervously, “Ted asked me to speak about what I have learned about our abilities and the gems. So, let’s start with the abilities. Everyone has them. If you aren’t exhibiting them, then we just haven’t figured out what yours is yet. I can’t figure out how your abilities are chosen, some seem related to your likes, some to dislikes, some to natural talents, some to learning. Now, even though everyone has them, some are definitely stronger than others and I don’t know what causes that.” Cliff looked around at the faces he could see, he concluded that this was at least something everyone assumed, so he continued. “there seem to be two types of abilities. One is kinetic – like Jessica’s ability to move things, or Natalee and Ted’s martial abilities, or Kim’s ability with fire.” This part seemed to surprise even Kim. “The second type is empathic, like my ability with items and Max’s abilities with her pack.”

  “So, as for using them, as far as I can tell, there are two parts of the use of these abilities. I call these parts form and function. Form is figuring out what it looks like. It seems like you have to know the form of the ability you are looking to use. If I were to guess, that is why Kyle’s light is small right now, he hasn’t imagined it as something else. Max has great form because there is no separation between her and the dogs in her mind. So, Pastor Rich could change from calming music to some other emotion if he imagined a different form of the music.”

  Ted broke in at this point. “Cliff are you saying that only our minds make this form?”

  Cliff thought about his answer for a minute, “Well, I wouldn’t say it that way. I would say we form it in our minds and then it becomes the ability. Does that make sense?”

  Ted seemed to just think about that and no one asked any other questions, so Cliff continued.

  “The second part of the use of the abilities is function. Another way to say that is purpose, what is t
he purpose of the ability. Again, using Kyle as an example, he hasn’t found a use beyond lighting up an area, so that is how the power manifests itself. To sum it up, you must have imagination, openness, and purpose.” There was a long pause. “Any questions?”

  The questions were many, and varied, and lasted all night long. Cliff did his best to answer them, and slept well that night, knowing he had been of use to the group.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Zane Meyer’s patrol was going well. It seemed the rich people who lived in the area around the resort had deserted the area in the month since everything had changed. He knew there was a zoo up the mountain with wild animals and he hoped two things: one, that the animals were taken care of; and two, that the animals were not released. So far, they had seen no animals except for the normal ones, deer, elk, cats and dogs.

  Shogun Fine had slowed the march to the resort, ordering the Tigers to search the mansions and create a perimeter. They used a map they had found in one of the houses to plan and set things up. Shogun had already determined rings of housing with the best housing at the resort and the lowest for the villagers with the least use. As they searched in this widest perimeter of houses, they had not found a single person living. They had found a few dead.

  They expected more looters, but for whatever reason, there were none. Each house, or estate, was still in good condition and was full of the things that one would expect in a mansion where people had gone to vacation. He knew an inventory would need to be conducted, but that was a job for Damiano and the villagers he oversaw, not for the Tigers and soldiers of whom Meyer was the leader. He and his men would occasionally take a little something, a bottle of booze or a trinket of value, but mostly they left things as they found them. Meyer had made it clear to the rest that they would have to declare to Shogun whatever they took.

  The day wore on and this slow, house by house, room by room search was grueling. As his group was searching houses, he was followed by Damiano’s group inventorying and another group who were moving cars, and fences and such to create a long barrier wall going around this section of the housing. Shogun’s plan had been to build a total of three defensible walls. Once they finished this level, the next would be a smaller circle and then they would move onto the grounds of the resort itself. Each level would be cleared, inventoried and secured. Eric considered the importance in searching and inventorying, so those tasks had fewer and more valued workers, but the walls were being built by the masses of villagers, so they were erecting much faster than Meyer was searching.

  Meyer saw a small movement out of the corner of his eye. It could have been a dog, but he didn’t think it was. He sent his men on to the next house, but kept two of his best with him and put his finger to his lips to keep them quiet. They crept back toward the back of the estate, and Meyer saw the open door that he was sure he himself had closed. It had led to the pool house, which they had searched. It was certain that this was a person, and that person had effectively moved around to avoid detection while they searched.

  Meyer then saw a shadow and knew where the person was, he made a hand motion to the others, but said, “I guess it was nothing, let’s move to the next house.”

  After a short pause, he moved behind the couch and saw the woman cowering, looking the other way and waiting for them to leave. A smile crossed his face. “Lady, you want to get up now?”

  The woman turned toward him in fright. She was in her mid to late forties, in full make up, had clearly had some plastic surgery and had huge fake tits. She had a skin tight jogging suit over her curvy frame. She wasn’t obese, she just had the heaviness of wealth, and even that was giving way to lack of food, he guessed. Before he could say anything else, she jumped up and tried to run, but the other men stood in her way and she ran back toward Meyer. As he reached out and grabbed her, she beat against his chest and tried to squirrel her way out of his grasp.

  “Lady seriously,” Meyer said smiling, “this isn’t going to work. Just calm down.”

  The woman then made one of the biggest mistakes that people do when they fear a man, she went for his groin, turning she tried to drive a knee into his genitals. She missed, but it was still a bad move. Meyer slapped her hard across the face with the back of his hand and it twisted her around, flopping her across the back of the couch. Meyer pressed his body against her to keep her in place and could feel himself becoming erect as he pressed into the unhidden form of her ass. He leaned over her and put his mouth right next to her ear.

  “Oh, you want to play?” He said into her ear, then looked at the two others, “Hold her arms.”

  With one move, Meyer roughly pulled her jogging pants and underwear down to her knees. She began to cry and squirm and he grabbed her by the hair, jerking her head back. He would have violated her in every hole and then told his men to do the same, but suddenly the thought of Shogun Fine came into his head. Eric couldn’t care less if he ravaged this woman, but he would have told him to do it on his own time. Meyer did not find her that attractive, it was the power that was giving him a hard on. He ripped her pants and panties all the way off, then had the others remove her top and sports bra. He turned her toward him, while she tried to cover her breasts and privates.

  “Don’t try to kick a man in the balls unless you are prepared to take care of those balls later.” He reached up with the palm of his hand and roughly smeared the make up all over her face. Turning to one of the men, he said, “Take her out front to the others. She gets no clothes until I say she gets clothes.”

  “Yes, sir.” The soldier said before dragging her by the arm out into the street. Meyer searched again throughout the house, but the woman was the only one there, so he marked the door as cleared, and then moved on. In the street, he saw the woman sitting on the ground, completely naked, while many villagers looked on with varying looks of horror and disdain. It thrilled Zane Meyer to see her shamed. It was his power that brought this rich bitch into the streets, and he would teach others to fear him, much as they feared Shogun.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  Jenny Martinez had turned her small cave into a home. She had a small mattress, and as many amenities as anyone, she assumed. She was sheltered form the weather, safe from intrusion since she had secured the entrance and hidden it with bushes and had traded for enough goods and water to keep her going for a while. She had also begun going to the market and selling her gift of telling the story of an item. It was usually good for a few bartered goods, and she didn’t produce anything else, so she needed to sell what she could.

  She had also honed her talent a bit, and now knew how to slow the images so she could tell the story. It wasn’t always in order, so for the purposes of barter, she preferred newer items. Items like the ones she had taken form the jewelry store had long histories that mashed up into each other. Her little glimpses of their past telling her something, but it was sometimes hard to put together. But, these were the ones she enjoyed more. It was her entertainment to try to put the pieces of this puzzle together, and she was getting better at it by the day.

  She was now out of tradable goods and needed everything she had to survive. This would be the first day that the only thing she was offering was her reading services. She looked around her cave and grabbed two empty bags in the hope that she would be able to bring back some real items of value, or at least some antiques she could use to hone her skills and fill her nights with stories. It was a lot like watching movies, except you only got pieces and they never concluded.

  Jenny went to the front of her cave and looked out the little peek-hole she had created. Since she saw no people, she moved the large plywood sheet she had laying across the entrance, but just enough to get out, then she replaced it. Even this was behind a large section of brush, so it could not be seen from anywhere but very close up. In the bushes, she centered herself and reached out with her mind. Seeing the occasional small flash that animals put out, and no evidence of a human, Jenny made her way out of the bushes and then du
sted herself off to make herself presentable for the market.

  The market was now going every day, and a little church service had started on Sundays. It took her a little less than an hour to walk to market each day, and it was a decent walk. Men had occasionally tried to follow her, but she was always able to lose them long before she got anywhere near her home. She was always on the lookout for people following her, because she was a young woman, who lived alone. Every walk, about once every four or five minutes, she would reach out with her mind and search for any people in the area. This day was no different.

  About half way on her walk, she turned onto the downhill path toward the market area and immediately felt a fear come over her. Trusting her instincts, she drew herself off the path, and hid in the nearby growth. She reached out with her mind, and saw him immediately. There was a man about twenty yards ahead of her, also crouched in some bushes, but looking the other way. His aura was so distinct, it shocked her. She could see his features in it, which was unusual, as most people’s auras were just hazy glows. His was vibrant, intermittent blue, violet and bright white, but ringed with a grayish white border. She was glad that he looked the other way and thought to slink away back the way she had come.

  But then he turned, and two sparkling violet eyes stared right at her. He did not move, did not seem overly concerned, but she could not even muster the strength to inch her way away. He stood and moved her way and she dropped, cowering in place. Jenny wasn’t sure she had ever been this scared in her entire life. He walked right up to where she was, and the fear just disappeared. Jenny stared at what she assumed was a homeless man. He was covered in dirt and mud, had a full beard, and even in this heat wore a hoodie with the hood up. It was only Jenny’s skill that allowed her to see his eyes, because up close, she could now see that he was wearing sunglasses.