by Daniel Ruth
“I thought you didn’t use magic.”
“Jeremy, I am magic,” I lightly retorted. “Some of my methods were psionic, but most high magical kingdoms also are very aware of ‘mind’ magic. I’ll be careful. It’s not like there’s a rush.”
“Didn’t you say Vatapi was a genius demon lord?”
“Every demon lord is a genius,” I tried to say with a straight face. “Okay, that’s not really true, but if even an extremely talented demon lord had a way to reform faster from being destroyed they would all be using it. While they are reforming, they are extremely vulnerable to their rivals. I am already giving Vatapi a huge amount of credit by assuming he figured a way to change his ‘spawn’ point to somewhere inside these ten worlds.”
“So how much time do we have?”
“All the stories I heard mention centuries. Again, I am giving him a huge amount of credit by assuming six months to a year. Chances are I am way off.” I was hoping I was overestimating Vatapi. If I was too far off the other way, then we were in serious trouble. “If he was that much better than all the other god-like demon lords, he wouldn’t have been driven out and hunted in the first place.”
“So, Stella was really sad about being trapped in this world,” Jeremy began again. “Do you think she’ll like getting back to elf society? You mentioned that there's a whole kingdom over there.”
I quickly glanced around the cafeteria. “Jeremy, never say that to her. She is a nice girl, but maybe a little racist about other elves. Big elitist complex on her version of elves.”
“Oh,” he said in a thoughtful voice. “Is she right?”
I shrugged. “Probably. I think her variation is the original branch of evolution. Then again, from her ravings, so were the sidhe. I meant more her society. Very proud of the Norse culture.”
“But didn’t they rape, loot and enslave across the ocean?”
“Not if you listen to her go on about it. I wouldn’t mention other elven cultures. I don’t know how it would go.” The conversation lapsed into silence as we sipped our drinks and finished the food.
“Conrad says he’ll have another two cartons of gems in two days. From what I saw on the viewer, Stella will be here in a few hours. So as soon as the gems get here, Stella and I will head out and you two can go back to the city.”
Jeremy shook his head, rubbing its sides with his fingertips as his eyes became unfocused in thought. Obviously, he wanted to come and see the new world. I mean who wouldn’t?
“You can’t come. You have no defenses. One stray fireball and I wouldn’t even have a bit of ashes to try the cloning trick on.”
“It’s not that. It’s just,” he winced, then sighed. “Never mind.”
Chapter 17
I was in the cafeteria again, waiting in line for the food. I thought it was a bit strange that I had brought back most of the meat and I was still standing in line. In front of me were over twenty servicemen. This was far more than the pittance that had inhabited the converted buildings only a day ago. Apparently, the troops that had been pulled out of the city during the bombardment were trickling back in. It also meant that they were eating my food. Naturally, I wasn’t happy.
“I’m sure they have dinosaurs over on the other side that you can eat,” Stella comforted me from her place next to me.
“No, they have various vicious magical animals, but no dinosaurs. It's why Mirabel was so happy with the food I brought.”
“Well, I suppose you can eat the monsters over there,” the elf replied dubiously.
“I’m not really comfortable with that,” I admitted. “Although magical beasts are definitely animals, some of them have almost low-grade human intelligence. It doesn’t seem right to eat something you can talk to. Even if they come across as low-grade morons.”
“I hadn’t realized your kind had such scruples.”
“Some don’t. It not like we have our own culture. We are how we were raised,” I replied shrugging.
“Derek! Can I come?” an excited little girl cried out as she ran up to me. As usual, she was practicing her shielding skills and glowed a dim blue to my sight.
“I assume you mean across the gate to...” I paused. Mirabel hadn’t actually told me the name of the world, country or even the school. I shrugged to myself. “The mysterious world on the other side.”
“You forgot,” Stella interjected with a smile.
“Nonsense. I never forget anything,” I indignantly replied. “Anyway, if Derek is okay with it, then so am I.”
“I’m shocked that he brought her along. Maybe he’s realizing that she is more mature than he thinks,” the elf suggested.
“Maybe he’s finally realizing that his sister’s survival potential dwarfs his own. He needs to get off his butt and start training like Beth here,” I said as I patted the girl’s shoulder proudly. “I mean really, he could trip and die and with the state of today's technology all they would do is put him into cold storage until they repair the infrastructure. Who knows how long that would take.”
“You could teach me how to heal,” Beth chimed in.
“Good idea, but I want you to perfect your shields first. They need to get a little more solid before I can be sure incidental damage can’t take them down. Also, healing requires several supplemental skills to diagnose the problems.”
“I’ve seen you heal at a touch.”
“Flesh wounds. Diseases, poisons, cancers, more delicate surgeries need a bit more.” I paused in thought. Even being able to heal bruises and cuts and minor burns would be useful to her. “Then again, you can still start on the basic skills. You’re really excellent for a human.”
“Really? Isn’t that a bit racist?” Stella chided me with her hands on her hips. I eyed her ruefully.
“Some races are born knowing things. I am very satisfied with Beth’s progress.”
“Great! So I can come and learn a new skill!” Beth jumped up and down giddily.
“I’ll go up and ask him later this afternoon...”
“Make it tonight,” she interjected. “He is still jet lagged. I’ll come get you when he’s ready. I mean when he’s up.”
“Tonight doesn’t give him much time to think about it,” I replied uncertainly. “We’re leaving tomorrow morning.”
“It’ll be fine,” Beth reassured me.
“Okay.” She knew her brother better than I did. I changed the subject. “Have you had any luck with the rocket?”
“A little bit,” she reluctantly replied, glancing around uneasily. During this time I had reached the actual food and was heaping my plate full of meat under the disapproving glare of a disgruntled lunch lady. “I had an idea. The long-range rockets are...” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “...illegal, however, there are tons that were disabled and sold as antiques or keepsakes. If we can buy one of those, I think the parts needed to repair them are pretty basic. If Jeremy helps it would be easy. Even if he doesn’t, I think I could figure it out with a few extra parts and couple of tries.”
“What's this about a rocket. Are you sure you should be breaking the laws of the world you’re in?” The álfar asked.
“I promised not to tell anyone the details, but it could be pretty bad if I can’t get something outside the influence of the chain circle.”
“Chain circle?”
“That sounds stupid,” Beth offered her unwelcome opinion.
“I have to call our little demon lord’s masterpiece something,” I said with a wave.
“Well, why not ‘Barrier Circle’ or something cool?”
“Are you saying ‘Chain Circle’ isn’t catchy?” I asked with a frown.
“It sounds like a biker gang trapped us in a circle. Either that or a rabid prison warden.”
“I don’t get that last reference.”
“Chain gang?”
“I think you're stretching that association…”
“Can we get back to the ‘bad’ thing you mentioned,” Stella interrupted an annoyed loo
k on her face. “Bad, as in the end of the world?’
“Probably not that bad. More an invasion of supernatural horrors. Considering we already have one invasion on tap, I would like to nip this one in the bud.”
“Fine.”
“Wow, I didn’t know it was that important,” Beth said with a look of awe.
“Would you have worked any faster?”
“Not really...”
“Then why belabor the point?” By this, we had sat at our table and had mostly devoured the food. I looked sadly at the scraps.
“And you're completely okay with Beth coming with us?” I asked again.
“Sure, I’m sure she’ll benefit from a trip to the zoo,” Jeremy said distractedly. He had some sort of spreadsheet matrix floating in the air and rotating around its axis. It fizzed in and out of existence, as whatever passed for circuitry in the room tried to compensate for the high ambient energy and more specifically my presence. Obviously, the local systems were not hardened. They were, however, ancient by the standards of the day which means they still worked.
“Well, I suppose that's one way to put it.” The other world could possibly be described as a wild place, full of various beasts and monsters. I had expected to have to downplay that aspect of the trip. “You know that just on the other side of the gate I saw three creatures I had never actually seen in person before.”
“It should be very educational,” he nodded vaguely. “I’d take her myself, but I have to finish this.” I snorted. I had already told him I wasn’t taking him near any real danger until he stopped being squishy. I looked again at the spreadsheet and back to Jeremy. It must be incredibly complex because it certainly appeared to be utter gibberish to me.
“So, you’re sure...” I began again but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Glancing at it in annoyance, I walked over and opened it. Beth was on the other side.
“Why are you knocking? It's your own room,” I snapped. I was confused and it made me irritable.
“I didn’t want to interrupt if you had to convince Jeremy. The cargo of gems arrived, did you want to check it?”
I glanced back at Jeremy, who was completely ignoring me. “It's fine. If I give Mirabel any artificial gems it could seriously set back our relationship. Besides, she likes how they smell.”
“I didn’t know dragons had a keen sense of smell,” Beth replied in surprise.
“Yeah, me either.”
As I set off down the road to the gate for the second time, I thought it was far more peaceful than the first. There was no fire in the sky or wandering skeletons. There were patrols of troops and several details of men clearing the rubbish from the road. Unfortunately, all the armed people roaming around also led to fewer dinosaurs. My poor Mirabel was not going to get any delicacies this time around. I sighed. I wasn’t either. Still, this was good for the few remaining civilians. These were actually outside, rather than cowering scared behind barred doors.
“Faster! Faster!” The other difference was that there was a little girl on top of one of the cargo bin I was dragging yelling at me to go faster.
“If you want to go faster then come down and pull it yourself,” I told her pointedly over my shoulder.
“What's the matter, are you tired?”
“Not at all. I’m just not in a hurry.”
“Can I...” The elf started, then hesitated.
“Fine.” I snorted. “Hop on.” I didn’t know what the big deal was. She usually had Faramond to haul her around all the time.
I could tell the girls were getting more excited as we approached the gate. Beth, I could understand. Although I was mostly unconscious for my first trip I am sure it would have been exciting if I had been lucid. And not freshly tortured. Stella was just a big girl, swinging her legs and cheering me on right next to Beth.
Along the sides of the road, the crews and civilian looked up at the spectacle as passed. In a world of military cyborgs and shifters, I doubt my feat was all that impressive. I still think they were looking at the girls on top of the cargo units, yelling like idiots.
Since I was going at a slow walking pace, it took over an hour to get to the gate. Now that it wasn’t a war zone there were the mechanical buoys that I had long since gotten used to, encircling the Arc de Triomphe, complete with dazzling holographic displays warning people off in the strongest possible language. Automated truck mounted cannons emphasized the message. I may be a touch pessimistic, however I could easily imagine those guns being pointed the other way.
It only took a moment to walk across the barrier, Beth squealing in glee all the way. Stella was just as happy, simply less vocal. A little less. I noticed a slight wisp of smoke rising from her next where I had marked her with a drop of blood. That was promising. The blood wasn’t a permanent key to the gate. It burned off slightly with every passage.
This made me rather happy for a few reasons. If I ran across someone very powerful and they were aware of this, they wouldn’t simply kill me for a passport. It also meant that it was unlikely that the demons could perpetually use any blood their master had left behind. I doubted he actually had. I would lay odds that his natural arrogance never even imagined his failure at such a juncture. The downside was that anything powerful enough to capture or kill me may well keep me for a very long time.
“You brought my wergild,” Mirabel’s voice called out as we crossed over. “You also brought... guests.” I could tell she wasn’t happy about the last part.
“These are my pets,” I assured her, earning a hurt look from Beth and a smirk from Stella. “You were kind enough to let yours romp around a while I thought I would bring my lot around on our way through.”
The menacing glint in her eyes diminished. Pets were a lot like treasure to dragons. Since I had claimed them, then it would be undesirably aggressive to hurt them. Akin to stealing a dragon’s treasure. You just don’t do that, unless you intend to fight to the death. Naturally, since we are courting she would be considerate of this issue. If Beth were an unclaimed human I doubt it would have gone nearly as well. I would have to see what I could do to acclimate her to humans again. My people would definitely have issues if she randomly roasted passing humans.
“That's okay then. She looks young. Maybe she would like to play with my unicorn?”
“Oh, could I?” Beth piped up.
“I... am not sure that would be a good idea,” I slowly stated. Beth had a decent force field, unicorns were hardly combat monsters, but I was a little worried.
“Please...”
“Unicorns are pretty harmless,” Stella added her two cents. I gave her a brief glare.
“Okay, but you are to keep your force field up at all times. If I see it go down I will pull you out.”
“I think you're worrying about nothing,” Mirabel gave her opinion. “Cinnamon’s got such a sweet temper.” With that, she gave a shrill whistle. Moments later thunderous hoofs could be heard, as the raging unicorn from hell galloped from some far field into view. It completely ignored the rest of us and charged Mirabel, nostrils flaring and legs churning. Beth and Stella quickly stepped back, eyes widening and mouths open in surprise.
Mirabel naturally smiled sweetly at her beloved pet and swiftly changing into her titanic form swept the unicorn up into her arms and tossed the snorting and squealing beast into the air. As it landed in her arms, she spun it around by the front hooves and then set the poor thing down on the ground. There it wobbled unsteadily on its feet before collapsing on the ground.
“We can play later, little Cinnamon,” Mirabel talked to her pet in an artificial baby tone. “The little human want to play with you like you do mommy.”
Beth took a moment to realize the woman, who had once more shrunk back to mere mortal size, was talking about her and immediately started to babble. “No really! I wouldn’t want to intrude! Keep doing what you were doing!” I saw Stella subtly move her hand into a casting position and move in front of the little girl. I was about say somethin
g. I wasn’t positive what it would be, but I am sure it would have been brilliant.
Cinnamon looked up fiercely, however as soon as its eyes landed on the girl the fire left them. Staggering to its feet it wobbled over to Beth, nudging past the elf before shoving its muzzle in the crook of her arm, somehow avoiding having her horn in any dangerous position. The beast gave a deep sigh, closing its eyes and giving off the feeling it had found an oasis of peace in an otherwise troubled world.
Mirabel watched the scene with a sort of worried expression. “Well, how about that. She must be tired.” Shaking her head sadly she continued, “Sorry about that, I was hoping you’d get to play together.”
“That’s all right,” Beth nervously mumbled. “I’m pretty tired. Maybe Cinnamon and I can just rest a while.” Saying so, she led the now docile creature off to the side, where some hardy grass had just raised it scraggly head above the burnt desert.
“Oh well, maybe the other fellows would be interested in her or your elf.”
“Álfar...” Mirabel's head whipped around at the sound of the woman’s voice. “Er... never mind.”
I could see she was trying, but Mirabel had obviously not been socialized around humans. I couldn’t imagine where her parents had left her to be raised, but I am pretty sure it wasn’t among mortals. I was beginning to think I shouldn’t linger around. Beth only had a weak shield and if the dragon lady sneezed or stepped on her, I would have to figure a way to resurrect her before Jeremy found out. Stella could at least survive a few accidents before something too unfortunate happened.
“So, we just stopped by to drop off the rest of the contracted gems. After you check them, we’ll head out to the city with the school. What's the name of the school anyway?”
“Runic Glyph. You have to go so soon?’
“Sorry, I should be able to stay longer after we check on the demon horde.” I paused in thought. “That's an odd name for a school.”
