by D. N. Leo
“That isn’t magic,” Lyla said.
“It’s a vision from a higher power, Lyla. From her god,” Phala told her.
Michael knew what Lyla was talking about. He didn’t know much about technology, but he had seen enough in the multiverse. This exchange of light and energy felt dauntingly familiar to him. Lyla looked at him and nodded slightly. It was her signal to confirm his suspicion.
“What is the image here, Phala?”
“That’s the heart of the Viet Kingdom. It looks to me like all the people have been burned to death right in the middle of their capital.”
Lyla turned and looked at Michael. “Kannitha said she had a vision of a great war that devastated a large part of Earth. She couldn’t save people from a war that would happen in a very short time—wars and casualties are expected. But the bones and ashes in the field she’s seeing now were not caused by the war.”
“The shadow?” Michael asked.
“What shadow?” Phala asked.
“I can confirm your suspicions now, Michael. Based on what’s going on, I think the shadow can manipulate the dimension of time and interfere with events in the past to harvest a lot more burned identities without being detected.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Lyla,” said Phala.
“Your sister said there will be a great invasion of the Viet Kingdom from the North and from the South. And the arm from the South will be led by you. I’m sure you would have received orders from the royals.”
Phala whirled around, and his eyes reddened. “I must do whatever it takes to maintain our position in this kingdom. And I have yet to receive any orders.”
“Well, my best guess is, if you get an order of this caliber, saying no would be your death sentence,” Michael said.
The temple shook slightly, and the air heated up even more.
“We don’t have time for a long discussion,” Lyla said. “I need to decide whether this is a manipulation from the multiverse, and then I’ll let you know the next step.”
“But your internal computer isn’t working, Lyla,” Michael said.
“I’ll try,” she said and approached the light beam inside of which Kannitha was standing.
She closed her eyes, as if in concentration, and then she raised her hands to chest height, her palms facing the light without touching it. Michael guessed she was attempting to draw energy from the beam and summon fire to see if she could get her system to work.
Her palms glowed with blue light.
Then the light went out, and Lyla opened her eyes.
“The great Mongol invasion hit the Viet Kingdom from the North, and the current dynasty uses a scorched-earth strategy, evacuating the city and burning everything in the capital that might be of use to the enemy. The war evacuation order creates fear in the people and triggers their emotional weaknesses, and that is the gateway for the shadow.”
“Yes, it’s done that before. So what do we do?” Michael asked.
The temple shook a bit harder as if gathering more energy.
“If it wants to capture and burn hundreds of thousands of people at a time, it will have to send in a massive wave of energy. And that is where you can step in, Michael.”
The beam spun slowly around Kannitha, and the image on the tabletop moved as if the events were being played in reverse. Bones and ashes lifted from the ground and formed themselves back into people. Destroyed houses, trees, and everything else in the city went back to their original form.
“She’s rewinding the vision. Michael, can you draw and hold the wave of energy before it hits? Can you do that?”
“I can.”
“Place your hands on the table,” Lyla said.
They heard a crack in one of the temple’s walls.
“It’s going to cave in! We have to get out of here!” Phala said.
“You have to let your sister finish what she wants to do, Phala.”
The ground shook.
On the table, the storm of fear descended into the massive crowd like dust from hell. And behind the fear storm was a cloud of fire energy, looming, waiting. It was like a shadow of death, hanging there, waiting to consume hundreds of thousands of souls at once. The shadow was invisible to ordinary eyes. But certainly not to Michael.
He concentrated on the cloud on the screen and placed his palms on it.
He heard a haunting roar from hell.
The cloud changed direction, shrank into the distance, and then flew at him. It hit him like a tidal wave.
Chapter 16
Jaxper stirred and eased herself out of Gale’s arms. He looked at her then smiled and kissed her cheek lightly.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Why do you ask?”
He smiled. “Well, I was a little rough…”
She snorted.
He chuckled. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have underestimated you.”
She didn’t think the love potion she had given him was contagious, but his light Irish accent was so easily making her horny. This was the dream relationship any woman would want if there weren’t magic and a potion involved, making things a bit temporary and unnatural. She shrugged. She had poisoned him to save him from himself. It was totally justifiable.
“Do you remember what happened, Gale?”
He frowned. “I found the gateway and opened the portal so Lyla and Michael could go back to the Daimon Gate.” He looked around. “They must have gone home? I don’t know how I got here. Did they take the cats, too?”
“You just woke up, and the first thing you remember is the cats?”
“No, the first thing I asked was if you were okay after our rather overenthusiastic activity. Regarding the cats, I like them. They’re orphans, and I promised Lyla I’d take care for them…”
They heard footsteps at the cave entrance and jumped to their feet.
Cole walked into the cave.
Jaxper buttoned up her blouse. “Hey,” she said, “even cave people have etiquette. Don’t you know how to knock?”
Gale was in no hurry to pull his pants up, and he left his shirt off. He looked at Cole nonchalantly and asked, “Who are you?”
“You don’t know who I am, but you aren’t at all worried how I found you in this elusive place?”
Gale chuckled. “I haven’t been outside yet. I don’t even know how I got here. And anyway, you don’t look like someone I should be worried about.”
Cole cast a glance at Gale and then approached Jaxper. “I know what you’re doing. You’re playing with fire, young lady.”
“Hey, don’t you talk to her that way,” Gale said and pushed Cole away.
Cole looked at Jaxper. “There will be consequences for this, Jaxper. But we have a bigger problem. Michael and Lyla are trapped.”
Gale’s focus shifted from his total affection for Jaxper to concern for Michael and Lyla. “So they didn’t go home? What happened to them?”
Cole chuckled. “Apparently he’s not totally poisoned.”
“What?” Gale asked.
“Where are Michael and Lyla?” Jaxper cut in. “You sent them to get the ash of Lythe for you. You sent them into a trap?”
Cole shook his head. “I sent them to the right location in the woods. I waited for a long time for them to come back. In the end, I risked my neck to go to that place. The temple where the ashes were located is no longer there. There were traces of multiversal creatures, dimensional gateways, and traps.”
“How do you know about traps from the multiverse? Who are you?” Gale growled.
“He claims to be Michael’s father,” Jaxper said.
“Did they buy this crap?”
“I don’t need you to believe me. I don’t even have to explain anything to you. I came to ask Jaxper if she has any way to track them.”
“Tracking is my business,” Gale said.
“Then do it if you care about your friends.”
“I’m sure they are more than capable of handling a few cr
eatures from the multiverse. I know you’re one of them—”
“You should be worried, Gale. I found traces of Lythe where Lyla and Michael went missing. That’s the nastiest magic creature you could come across.”
“Wait, is she dead or not? Or are you saying she’s living ash?” Jaxper asked.
“It’s complicated. She’s more dangerous being neither alive nor dead.”
Gale walked out of the cave. “Where’s my equipment, Jaxper?”
“In here.”
Gale hurried back in. Jaxper went to a remote corner of the cave and pressed a stone on the wall. A small compartment opened. Gale rushed over. “All my equipment is here, including the tracker I made for Lyla,” he muttered.
“So you can’t track them?” Jaxper asked.
Gale looked at Cole. “I can. But I need to do the search again, using all the information I can get about the stupid task you asked them to do.”
“That task will save Lyla from exile. And I’m out there working hard to find her and my son while you sit here in this cozy cave doing the unthinkable. You’re a weak link, Gale. We should have let you die. Lyla should have let you die—”
“What are you talking about?” Gale said and grabbed Cole by the collar.
“Stop that, you two.” Jaxper pushed Gale away. “Let’s find them first, and then you can talk it out…”
Chapter 17
Heat. That was all Michael felt.
His hands were held to the table by an incredible force. The problem was that the force came from his inner will. And he couldn’t stop it.
On the screen, he had a bird’s eye view of a crowd of hundreds of thousands of innocents being covered by the fear dust that hovered in the air. They didn’t know it was happening. But Michael knew how the shadow worked because it had attacked him in Xiilok. He knew how it penetrated the nervous system and triggered the most intense fears people could ever experience in their lives.
If Lyla hadn’t interfered, he would have died.
Now, if he didn’t interfere, these innocents would die.
They wouldn’t be able to see the cloud of fire and the energy that followed behind the fear dust. They didn’t know that as soon as the fear consumed them, the fire would burn them to ashes instantly.
Michael swore to the god that he made up as he went that he would suck all the energy from that cloud and keep it within him. If he survived, he’d give the shadow’s face the finger and tell it he was the one who snatched away its biggest meal of the millennium, right from under its nose.
Because of all this, he refused to let go of the table even though it felt as if the heat waves and energy had filled every cell in his body. His mind started to go numb, and he couldn’t have lifted his hands from the table even if he wanted to.
The world started to blur.
The light beam around Kannitha spun like a small tornado. Her body glowed like a lantern.
The temple shook harder, and the walls began to crack and crumble. It might have been his imagination, but he thought he saw water seeping in from the ground, and things seemed to be moving in a downward motion. He thought the island might be sinking.
He could see that Lyla was concerned. She approached him.
“Don’t touch me,” he said, and saying just those few words taxed him a great deal. His knees were about to buckle. And he didn’t know what would happen if he collapsed. The foreign energy inside him hadn’t made him strong as he’d expected. He wasn’t sure if he could handle it.
Phala approached the light beam, attempting to pull Kannitha out. As soon as he touched the light, he bounced back, flying through the air like a rag doll and hitting the wall near the top of the ceiling. His body slid down to the floor.
“Can you stop, Michael?” Lyla asked.
Michael shook his head.
A wall collapsed, and water began to pour in. The temple was definitely sinking. The water rose quickly until it was waist deep. Lyla held Phala so that his head was above the water.
“Michael, stop! Pull your hands away.”
He couldn’t move them.
“Go, Lyla, go. Leave me. Leave Phala. You have to swim out. He’s too heavy for you.” Michael was totally out of breath.
Kannitha stood still. She glowed. The water around her turned blood red. She opened her eyes and looked toward Lyla. Michael’s world was dim, but he was sure Kannitha could now see Lyla.
Lyla picked up a piece of heavy wood floating by and heaved it at his side. He heard bones crack, and his body felt like it was broken in two. His hands broke loose from the table and fell into the rising water.
He saw nothing after that. His world turned black.
He was drowning in darkness for a long time. The heat had left him, replaced by an icy cold from hell. Then the light came back to him, and he felt warmth brushing his face. Michael opened his eyes.
He was floating in the water. He frowned.
Lyla leaned over him, looking down. “There you are.” She smiled.
He lifted his head and winced at the searing pain in his side.
“I broke four of your ribs. Sorry. But now that you’re awake, you can start healing them.”
He could now see that he was lying on the tabletop, which was now floating on water. To his left was Phala. The eerie quiet of the lake surrounded them. There was no sign of the temple or the island, and there was no Kannitha.
“Kannitha?”
Lyla shook her head. “The temple sank too quickly. I could only grab two of you. And that was only with the help of this table. And now we’re stuck on this chunk of wood because I don’t know how to get it to the bank.”
Phala stirred and woke.
“Shit,” Michael muttered.
Phala sat up, looked around, and realized what had just happened. He dove into the water.
“Stay here, Michael.” Lyla dove after Phala.
Michael rolled his eyes, and despite the pain in his ribs, he slid down into the water and followed Lyla.
Under the water, the scenery was magnificent. Colorful fish swam around stone arches. Michael was astonished to see houses and what might have been a small village. The temple sat at the bottom of the lake. Phala swam through the door. Lyla followed him inside.
Michael approached the door. Sheer devastation. Nothing was intact. And there was no sign of Kannitha.
Phala scoured the debris, looking for his sister. He pushed Lyla away when she tried to pull him out. Michael approached and tapped on Phala’s shoulder.
Phala turned around, and by the looks of his face, had they been on land, a growl would have escaped his lips. But in the water, all he could do was scowl. When he turned back, away from Michael, Michael threw a punch to his head, knocking him out cold. Lyla and Michael grabbed his arms, and the trio resurfaced.
Chapter 18
Gale cursed at the machine when it refused to cooperate. He had gone to an open area, a flat spot on top of the hill where there were no obstructions, no forests, and no destructive frequencies or energy of any sort, but the computer still didn’t like it.
Jaxper sat next to him, but Gale knew her mind was with the leaves, flowers, and potions in front of her. He was into his tech work, and she was into her magical compounds. That was fair.
He still couldn’t figure out what had happened in the fight with the witches or how he had ended up in the cave with Jaxper. He also didn’t understand why Cole had called him a weak link. But it didn’t matter. He would find out soon enough. For now, he had other priorities. He needed to open the portal so Lyla and Michael could come back.
“That machine is innocent, you know!” Jaxper said.
“But this isn’t just any machine—it’s mine. I know Lyla put a lock on it, but it should still respond to me.”
“If it will take my potion, I’m willing to try it.”
Gale chuckled. “If your potion works on machines, I’ll shove it down its throat even if it refuses.”
“Oh, I’m sure it w
ill work.”
“What do you mean? Your magic works on machines?”
Jaxper grinned at him and said nothing. He shrugged. Female humans were too complicated for him to understand, let alone witches.
He pulled out a small folded piece of fabric and gave it to Jaxper. “I found this substance where Cole said he sent Michael and Lyla to retrieve the jar. He was right about the fact that there was a trace of creatures from the multiverse. But because my computer isn’t working, I can’t test it to tell whether it’s from multiversal creatures or mercenaries or something magical. Can you tell?”
Jaxper opened the pocket of fabric and looked at the white powder he’d scraped off the tree trunk at the scene. It looked like ashes, but there was something about it that was different. She looked at him and said, “This is witchcraft.”
“Damn it. I knew it. Now what am I supposed to do? I can’t exactly write a program to kill it!”
“What do you mean by it?”
“Magic! Witchcraft!”
“You want to kill the witches?”
“No, Jaxper. You’re a witch, but you’re a good person. I just mean I don’t care for magic because I don’t know about it and can’t control it. And as long as it has nothing to do with me, I don’t care—”
“But what if it does? What if someone cast some magic on you? Would you kill that person?”
“Of course! Casting magic on me without my consent—or my friends’ consent in this case—is a hideous crime. If Lyla and Michael were trapped in the time dimension, I could do something about it. But if they’re in a magic trap—whatever that means—I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do!”
“There are traces of magic, but it doesn’t mean they’re trapped in anything magic, Gale. Cole said it might be a time-dimensional gateway, so as far as I’m concerned, that’s not magic.”
Gale stood and paced back and forth. “But still, I need the exact time marker to trace them. The temple and the jar of Lythe’s ashes aren’t helping me any.”
“But that’s all the information I have.” Jaxper sighed. “What else can we do? Trace the directory of the house of gods?”
