It was a testament to how weird my life was, that what I said didn’t seem to faze anyone.
Amy cleared her throat, I thought rather bravely in the middle of all the supernatural races in the room, “We’ll we aren’t going anywhere, start talking.”
I still believed that leaving had been the right call, but considering the current atmosphere in the room, I decided not to express that sentiment ever again. It was also going to be hard explaining this without saying anything about Aitheria or the elementals, they were too entwined in what happened.
The story wouldn’t make sense at all if I left that part out.
Aitheria took the decision out of my hands, and showed herself to everyone in the room, including the humans. I saw a lot of widened eyes, awe, and even some shock at the very small blue woman. I realized this story would take even longer than I thought, and started at the beginning.
“The first time I ever saw Aitheria, was as a baby when she played peekaboo above my crib…”
By the time I finished the story, and filled in all the gaps I’d left in the past, it was close to three in the morning. I was very happy I hadn’t kept it from Sierra at all, and she was about the only person not even a little angry at me. She wasn’t even angry about me leaving them earlier anymore, apparently her punch had gotten it all out of her system, and she was sitting on my lap. Well, Aiya knew about her too, so I supposed that made two of them not mad about Aitheria, but Aiya was still mad at me for being reckless.
Derik said in a grave voice, “I know it’s late, and it’s a good thing we can sleep in tomorrow, but before we go to bed, what’s the plan now if the other two sorcerers show up?”
I sighed, “If anything, as a group, we are in even more danger now. Anise wanted me alive at first, in order to get herself out of a pact, and probably didn’t care about any of you one way or another. If Raymond and Manny stayed, they’re going to want revenge.”
Carrie said speculatively, “And since you took Anise away from them… they might want to return the favor with one of us?”
Gerald grunted, “Sounds about right. That means we stick together this time, no running off to play hero. Understood?”
I nodded reluctantly, “We might as well just follow the original plan. Lure them here, or Tara’s store, and take them out when they’re weakened. It’s a long shot, but I’ve got nothing else, they’re really powerful. Not like Anise was, but much stronger than me.”
I looked over at Tara and Caroline, “Are you two staying? Or I could give you a lift home?”
Tara sighed, “In the morning, I’ll stay until morning in case they attack, but I need to open my store.”
Caroline nodded, “Me too, until morning I mean.”
We broke up then. Selene took charge of getting Caroline and Tara settled into spare rooms, and Sierra took me up the stairs.
I had realized while telling the story I still had more questions, but of course, Aitheria couldn’t answer them. I wondered what would happen when this life truly ended for me. Would I hang out with her in the elemental plane, and then move on to the spiritual plane when I wanted to be reborn? Would I have a choice? If we were soul mates, and that was forever, would my oldest friend who I loved dearly help raise me again in my next life? Or would she not be around until I died again?
Aitheria wasn’t saying. I supposed some things should stay a mystery.
When we got to our bedroom Sierra kissed me aggressively, and I forgot all about those questions as we moved to the bed.
Chapter 15
Saturday, July 9th, 2016, 10:02 AM
This was the second time I woke up this morning. A few hours earlier I’d given Tara and Caroline a magical lift to the city and then promptly crawled back into bed, wrapped my arms around Sierra, and fell back asleep. It was definitely time to get up though, I could smell the breakfast foods wafting throughout the house, and where there was eggs and sausage, there was undoubtedly coffee as well.
Something occurred to me as Sierra stirred in my arms.
“You lied to me.”
Aitheria sent, “What about?”
“That first few days I had my power, when I ran into the alley to save Diana without a clue what I was or what I was doing. You saved me from having my head cracked open like a melon when that rogue threw me up against the concrete wall. Then later told me you couldn’t do something like that again.”
Aitheria ruffled my hair with a playful whirlwind, “True. It was the one time you truly almost died over the last year while above the ground. I didn’t think it wise to tell you about the safety net however. For one, I wasn’t allowed to. Two, it would have made you act differently, you wouldn’t have been as cautious. As for yesterday afternoon, I couldn’t stop what Anise did because I was being kept busy myself. The elemental lord that came, and is now dead, was more powerful than I, and there were many others to deal with as well.
“If I’d told you, you might not have figured out ways to survive, and beat your enemies. Plus, it would have been a huge mental crutch. After all, the pact is finished with Diantherius returned to where he belongs, and I truly can’t save you again. It was also why I was always so terrified when you went underground, where I truly couldn’t save you or Dian.”
I guess that was all true. I would have acted differently, perhaps not even made allies. If I hadn’t tried so hard to stay alive, I also might not have managed to grow as powerful as I am. I’d have also been a lot less confident that I could take on two air sorcerers with allied assistance. They weren’t as powerful as Anise, but they still dwarfed my power, much like Jaben had however.
Not that it was a sure thing, but I had a real chance.
Sierra moaned and moved in my arms, I kissed the side of her neck until she was awake.
“Breakfast,” I said softly as she looked up into my eyes.
She grinned, “Soon,” and pulled me down into another kiss. She seemed insatiable these days, and I gave in rather easily to her desire, I certainly wasn’t going to argue…
It was closer to eleven by the time we shuffled down to breakfast, freshly showered and already awake. That didn’t stop me from grabbing a quick coffee before I sat down at the table. Most of the house had finished breakfast already, but Derik, Selene, Katie, and Clint were still there.
Katie asked, “Sleep well?”
I nodded and looked around, I also checked the ally bond. No one as far as I could tell seemed angry anymore about what I’d done, at least in the pack, but they also felt determined to not let me do it again.
Sierra replied, “Very well.”
Katie smirked, “I bet.”
I blushed and ate another forkful of eggs, with a piece of sausage.
Selene asked, “So do we have any idea what their plans are? I’d just as soon get it over with so we can get on with our lives.”
I shook my head, “They’re protected by their power, I can’t see anything about them.”
Something occurred to me and I sent to Aitheria, “Does that mean you can’t block knowledge of me either, since the pact is concluded?”
Aitheria replied, “No, I can still do that.”
I added to Selene, “But they can’t see us either. They know where we are, but they won’t know our plans, or be able to see what we’ll do and how it will turn out. Maybe that’s why they haven’t already attacked. They’re old, and probably worried about a turn out that they can’t predict. I would be, or rather, I am.”
I grinned, “I’m used to it though, I don’t imagine it’s happened to them in a long time.”
It hadn’t occurred to me until then that they would be afraid as well, but it should have.
Derik said, “Well, too bad they won’t just leave.”
“They might, we just can’t assume they will. I’ve no proof they actually stayed at all.”
I also had a few ideas.
The objective was for me to distract them until Tara, Selene, or Carrie can diminish their powers with the
wards, assuming they don’t just fall in the trap but I won’t hold my breath on that. Then I’d strike. It was a simplistic plan, but the only one that had a chance of working. The trick was to make the distracting part a lot more complicated and confusing than simply bouncing around and avoiding their attacks, they’re air sorcerers too, and will be faster than I could be.
Well, either way it would be fun. As I worked on my plan in my mind, I could hear Aitheria’s tinkled choral giggles in my mind. Apparently she thought it would be entertaining too.
I called everyone into the room.
“Okay, here’s the plan, when they arrive, I want all the humans to run for the basement. They should be safe there, even if all the rest of us aren’t. Carrie, Selene, Derik, Clint, and Suzy will also be in the basement, it will be the safest place for Selene and Carrie to bring up the wards without being attacked or interrupted, but they’ll need someone down there with them in case the sorcerers try and take down the ceiling. Gerald, Sierra, Katie, and Todd will be up here with me. Then I’m going to…”
Gerald cleared his throat when I finished, and then laughed, “That’s crazy, I like it.”
Carrie frowned, “How long can you keep that up?”
“Five, maybe six minutes, and then I’ll be out like a light. They can probably go faster than me, but I don’t think they will, because they won’t want to pass out. They’ll believe their shields will keep them safe until I run out of gas, and they don’t have allies to lean on. If I’m about to pass out, or something goes really wrong, I’ll try and move us all into the basement with fire magic.”
Derik sighed, “Even if we do win, the house… ah well, there are a few things I’ve wished I’d have done differently over the years, we can always rebuild. I’ll head to the basement now. We should be able to build a crude shelter in case the sorcerers drop the whole house on us. I could probably rig some kind of air vent for fresh air in case of fire as well.”
I felt a bit bad about that, “I considered trying to lure them to a different place for this, but I don’t think we have that much time to prepare a new place with wards, and the basement is critical for the plan.”
At the very least, that insured if I died some of the pack would live, including the alpha and beta. I’d really wanted to suggest Sierra go downstairs too, but she’s a dominant werewolf and a fighter, and I’d have lost that fight even if I pulled the pregnancy card, so I didn’t even bother trying. The only reason it worked on Clint and Derik is they had the job of protecting the pack’s mystics, omega, and the humans. For Sierra, she’d never leave her mate’s, my, side.
That was probably the scariest thing about this plan. We broke up and started making preparations.
As for me, I worked on a very specialized shield configuration. I was capable of all the elements I’d have to incorporate, but I’d never done all of them at once before…
Chapter 16
Saturday, July 9th, 2016, 3:38 PM
Werewolves loved to be outside. They spent a lot of time in the yard, or out on a run. Which is why just five hours after our planning meeting, they were all a little restless at being stuck in the house. Sure, they could go outside, but it would have been harder to get into our positions when the attack came.
So when the moment did finally come, and Selene yelled a warning about the active wards being attacked from outside, it was perversely something of a relief.
We all scattered to our places quickly, it wouldn’t take them that long to destroy the wards from the outside. I had Gerald and Sierra to my right, and Katie and Todd to my left. It was important in the beginning that they knew exactly where I was, if they struck without warning my plan would die right at the start. I was gambling they’d want to talk first, if they really wanted revenge they’d want to rub it in first.
I winced when the wards went down, and the wall in the living room was ripped out. Not just concern for Derik’s house, but how would we explain that to the neighbors later? None lived all that close, but I hoped they had some kind of shield up around the house to obscure what just happened. If they did, it was outside of my range to detect.
They flew into the house and looked at us with a mixture of anger and arrogance.
One said, “I am Raymond. I’ll make you an offer. Surrender to your betters, throw yourself on our mercy, and perhaps we will kill you quickly, and leave the mutts alone.”
Katie growled.
I had to stall them as long as I could, I knew the mystics were already working on raising the secondary wards. My plan was okay, but the less time I had to actually do it the better.
“I have a counter offer. You are free of your mistress, and her death was already avenged by the death of the elemental lord that enslaved her. We should have no argument. Leave Chicago and we will… live and let live.”
Manny shook his head in denial, “Her death is on your head! If you had not moved from below the earth, she would still live. Is that your answer? Will you allow these mongrels to die in a last useless gesture of defiance?”
Clearly, Manny was hoping I would, and he was ready to strike should I say yes. Wasting time was over. This was the most dangerous part of the plan, but it had taken me a while to figure out how to kill that fire sorcerer, and I had to speed up my perceptions to implement it.
I surrounded the five of us with elemental fire, and disappeared for a split second.
Things got a little complicated after that.
The five of us reappeared, all with air and fire shielding, as did twenty other fire and air shields.
Manny grunted, “What the hell is this?”
Obviously I wasn’t good enough with fire to create illusionary copies of me, but I was good enough to create a blob of light which occluded sight, they couldn’t tell which one was me at all, or which even had people in it and what ones were empty.
The last way they’d be able to identify me was the center of my power. Still, I determined how to obscure that as well. Even at my full reach, my shields wouldn’t take one hit from these two, so I pulled the semi-globe of power back to just a hundred and fifty feet. Then I reached for air a hundred and fifty feet out from around the other twenty-five shields. It resulted in an irregular pattern, but I still pulled almost the same amount of power as normal as we were all scattered around the room.
The only catch was, none of my illusions, or the four werewolves, could get more than a hundred feet from me, or they’d be identified as not me, and the air sorcerers would have a way to judge the true edge of my sphere of power and narrow down my location, which would be bad.
Then all twenty-five of me started to run around, including me, and started to fire weak random attacks from the shielded illusions at both sorcerers. Some raw magic, others sound attacks, and whipping winds.
Obviously, to control all these at once in a real seeming way, except for four which ran on their own, I had to increase my speed and perception to as fast as possible, and push that limit as hard as I could.
In short, total bedlam had broken out, and they had no idea what shields I or the four werewolves were behind. I thought this was the best plan, confusion at its best.
Manny chuckled darkle, “This won’t save you,” and he lashed out at a shield, which I broke off into two different directions, making the shield count twenty-six. Then both of those illusionary sorcerers attacked him with weak attacks just to confuse him further.
Manny growled and lashed out at three more, to similar results. It was easy to keep up at the enhanced speed, I just didn’t know how long I could keep it up. My body was already feeling tired. I had to last long enough though for Carrie and Selene to activate and charge the wards. It was also hard to keep track of time, when one second felt like thirty seconds subjectively.
My biggest worry was that they’d hit one of the wolves or me instead a pure illusion. But I’d need the wolves help to keep them from getting away when they lost contact with their power. Plus, they wouldn’t have allowed me to fight alo
ne anyway. There were a few close calls, Gerald almost died twice in a row early on, but managed to avoid the attacks.
Manny was losing it, and quite obviously frustrated.
Raymond growled, “Control yourself, or we’ll knock the house down on our own heads.”
I looked around, there were holes in all the walls, the opening to the kitchen was about three times what it should be, and there was another hole leading to the backyard. The house was actually creaking, and I wondered if they’d taken down a load bearing support.
It was getting harder to stay awake too after a while, and I tripped but recovered. I just had to hope they hadn’t noticed that or I was dead. Two seconds later… or perhaps one fifteenth of a second later in real time, the wards snapped on.
I also heard a loud rolling thunderous sound. Was that thunder? It was hard to tell when every sound was so dragged out.
Raymond and Manny cried out in alarm and made a run for the hole in the all.
I reached out to the full extent of my power and blasted them both, but they still had some power held within them, and could draw a little despite the ward, and their shields held.
Then I sat down, or more accurately, I fell back onto my ass. I knew I’d pass out in seconds. I sent all the shields to tackle and block them, and heard the werewolves growling and doing the same. But Raymond and Manny struggled through it, their shields weakening, but still more than a match for the werewolves and a few paper thin shields.
As for me, I couldn’t focus anymore, and my vision got very blurry from pushing my body so hard. I guessed the fight must have lasted at least ten minutes, which had felt so much longer to me subjectively as I tried to micromanage every movement in my deceptive show.
Then there were two bright blasts of intense white light that seemed to etch themselves on my retina, and I passed out…
Chapter 17
Sunday, July 9th, 2016, 9:52 AM
I groaned as I woke up.
Sorcerer: Elemental: Power of Air (Book 5) Page 8
