Rise of Shadows

by Vincent Trigili

  Then I saw it. It climbed out of the magus’ body and looked like some kind of walking bipedal lightning bolt. “What is that?” I asked on our telepathic network.

  “That’s a lightening elemental. I have read about them,” sent Flame. “Very dangerous creatures.”

  “How do I fight it?” I asked.

  “Um … a summoner can banish them, but other than that, I don’t know,” she sent.

  Great, that was one thing we did not have. “To battle then, it seems,” I sent back.

  Now at least I had a target I could fight, but what would hurt something made of electricity? Water might short it out, but would be just as deadly to me, as it would conduct its power back on me. We use electricity every day out here, but I never give it any thought. It is usually much better-behaved than this. While I was thinking, the creature pressed its attack, and I was forced to slowly back up. It was just too powerful, and it was slowly overwhelming my defenses.

  “Shadow, it’s just energy. That’s your gig, right?” sent Phoenix.

  “Bah, you are right!” I sent back. If my master saw me now he would be screaming at me, “Start acting like a spellweaver!” I let my perception of the world shift until I was looking through what I had taken to calling “weave sense,” where I could see all the energies ebb and flow for great distances around. This was how I could foresee the future. Before any event had a physical manifestation, energy is always expended, allowing me to see the event before it happens. It also allowed me to see into realms that were normally beyond the physical senses, and that often exposed hidden things, things that gave me tremendous advantage in combat.

  In this instance, it let me see the biggest weakness of the lightning elemental. It did not belong in this dimension, as there was no such thing as lightning elementals in our reality, so it had to be a summoned creature. Summoned creatures had a chain of energy that tied them back to their home dimension. I reached out, grabbed that chain, and with my powers pulled on it. Suddenly the attacks against me stopped as the creature doubled over in pain. Before it could recover, I unwove the connection it had to its home, which cut off its seemingly infinite supply of energy. Since it was a creature of pure energy, it could not live without its power supply, and it slowly faded away, screaming dreadfully as it went.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  “Flame, I need you,” I sent, then I reactivated sickbay and unsealed the door. Flame teleported in the instant I called her and stood between the magus and me, on guard. Leslie rushed to my side as I collapsed against the wall, completely drained. “I will be fine. Check our guest.”

  She hesitated, then moved to comply. ‘Sleeping, sir,” she said quietly. “He is in a deep, healing sleep. It would be best to let him stay asleep.”

  Flame relaxed a bit, then helped me into a sitting position. “You overdid it, again,” she said with a little bite in her tone.

  “I will be fine,” I said and tried to ignore the light-headedness.

  Leslie came back to my side, examined me, and then said, “Magic must really take a lot out of you, sir. Your vitals look like a man who has been weeks in combat without proper rest or nutrition.”

  “That creature packed a lot of power; he was almost beyond me to deal with,” I said.

  “Leslie, he needs a power drink. You’ll find the instructions on how to make one under illuminescence in the medical database,” said Flame. A power drink, as she called it, was a protein-rich drink laced with a chemical compound called illuminescence, a critical part of a magus' makeup, which was discovered by the Black Adders and later refined by Headmaster Rannor. It is used up in the working of magic, but no one has yet really discovered how or why. A magus’ body typically manufactured all he needed, but the process could often be kick-started into a faster rate by drinking a high-calorie nutrient drink mixed with artificially-created illuminescence. The artificial illuminescence could not be used to work magic, nor did it seem to do anything for mundanes. In fact, it seemed to be completely inert and non-digestible, yet there was no question about its impact on a magus.

  As Leslie made the drink, I noticed something odd. My weave sense was still active from the fight, and I could see energy flowing around her hands as she worked. No, that was not it; the energy was flowing through her hands. I watched without saying a word as more and more power flowed into the mixture. I could see her body was working overtime producing the energy, and a cold sweat broke out on her brow. Once she had finished, she brought it to me and said, “Drink, sir. If I understand the directions right, this will lose its potency pretty quickly.” She was right; illuminescence only had a half-life of a couple of minutes.

  I took the drink and could see it was laced with more power than normal, but the aura looked good, and I needed my strength for when the magus awoke, so I chugged it. As I drank it, I felt power pouring through my body, refreshing and rejuvenating me like nothing I had ever felt before. I stood up feeling fully recovered and said, “Whoa.”

  “Spectra, I should have asked you to do this before, but no matter; please read Leslie’s aura,” I sent. It seemed there was more to this doctor than first appeared.

  “Shadow, take it easy. You need rest,” said Flame.

  “No, Flame, I do not. It seems our doctor has greatly improved the recipe, somehow,” I said and then sent what I had seen when Leslie was making the drink.

  “Impossible,” sent Flame. “It’s as if she has completely restored your energy pools.”

  “Not completely, maybe sixty percent; but yes, impossible until now, it seems,” I sent. “Doctor, have you ever worked with illuminescence before?” I asked.

  “No, sir, I never heard of it till just now. Did I do something wrong?” she asked, obviously nervous.

  “Not at all,” I said, and then the images came in from Spectra.

  “Shadow, she is a magus, but I have never seen this aura pattern before. It matches what you saw when she mixed your drink, so she definitely enchanted the drink. I just have no idea how,” sent Spectra.

  “Doctor, you look a bit drained. Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Sorry, sir, I do not know why I am so tired all of a sudden,” she said. I could see she was confused and worried. I suspected that she had no idea what she had just done. “Sir, you look much better. This illuminescence must be more potent than the computer indicated.”

  “Now what?” asked Flame.

  “It is okay, Leslie. Please sit and rest a minute,” I said. “Flame, mix her up a protein shake like mine, but a much lower dose, and do not let her see what you are doing.” Once Flame had the drink ready, I pulled up a chair across from Leslie and said with a gentle smile, “Here, protein shakes are good for non-magi too.”

  She took the drink, and I could see the illuminescence glow softly as she drank it, just as it would if any magus drank it. “Okay, new rule of engagement: we make aura reading a more standard practice,” I sent. While I was sending that, she looked at her drink, then over to me, and said, “Sir, does this have illuminescence in it?”

  “Yes, how can you tell?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, sir, but it feels a little strange going down,” she said and then finished the drink. “A pleasant kind of strange.”

  “Leslie, have you always pursued a career in medicine, or have you tried other things in life?” I asked.

  “Oh, as a child I had all kinds of silly dreams, but ever since becoming an adult I have done nothing but study medicine, sir.”

  “What kind of silly dreams?” I asked.

  “Nothing special, I am sure, sir. Just typical ‘fairy princess’ kind,” she said. “Forgive me, sir, but this seems like an odd line of questioning.”

  “Yes, I suppose it does, but please bear with me a bit longer. When you made my drink, did anything seem odd about it?” I asked.

  “Well, sir, I have never worked with illuminescence before, so I do not know what would be considered odd,” she said.
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br />   “Yes, but you have worked with every other ingredient in that drink, I assume?” I asked.

  “Sure, it’s a fairly basic mixture that I would use with any starvation sufferer, sir,” she said.

  “Okay, then how was working with this drink different?” I asked.

  She paused and looked at me for a long while as if deciding whether or not to tell me something. Then she sighed and said, “The illuminescence made my flesh tingle a bit while mixing it. I am a bit embarrassed to say it was a very pleasant kind of tingling,” she said.

  “I see. Tell me one more thing, please: have you ever applied to Alpha Academy?” I asked.

  Excitement leaped into her face as she said, “No, but I desperately wanted to. I hear they only have one doctor for the entire school, and something about that place draws me, especially in my dreams.”

  “We should call home and get advice, not only on her but on this tear in space also,” sent Spectra.

  “We cannot risk that. So far, the ghosts have ignored us, but they seem to be drawn to me. If they discover us out here, they could easily overwhelm us before help could arrive and warn whoever is behind this. No, stealth right now is our best bet,” I sent.

  “What do you mean, ‘drawn to you’?” she asked.

  “I do not know, but when I was on that battleship they were pulling me in, begging me to save them. I knew their voices; it was as if they personally wanted me,” I sent and then I said to Leslie, “Leslie, you know we are from Alpha Academy. Why didn’t you ask us to join if you wanted to so badly?”

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “We sidelined her, and she was afraid to talk to us about it,” sent Flame. I knew she was right. After all, until now she was just a temporary mundane passenger that we’d intended to get rid of.

  “Leslie, you’re a member of my crew now, and that means you are a part of Alpha Academy,” I said.

  Her eyes opened wide as she looked at me with pure shock written across her face and said, “But, sir, I thought you did not want me?”

  “It is true, I did not want a mundane on board for this mission. It is just too dangerous. It had nothing to do with you, and everything to do with the fact that we are at war. Not to mention the fact that this is a top-secret vessel far more advanced than anyone else has ever seen before, and no mundane is allowed to see it,” I said. “I think you can see how having a mundane aboard made things a bit awkward. We have never dealt with anything like this before out here, and honestly I had no clear idea what to do with you. I still do not.”

  “Sir, you just said I was a part of Alpha Academy, now. What does that mean?” she asked.

  “That means, Leslie, that we have discovered you are not a mundane. You are, in fact, a magus,” I said.

  She gasped, stood up, and walked over to the computer, gestured at it and said, “But sir, your computers say a person is either born a magus or is a mundane. I have never shown any tendency for power, and failed the rudimentary tests your computers have. How could I be one?”

  “That is where you are mistaken. You just made an enchanted potion,” I said.

  “A what?” she feebly asked.

  “The drink you made for me, you enchanted it as you mixed it. Your power made it far more effective than any power drink I have seen before,” I said.

  “Yeah, don’t be fooled by those silly tests. I failed them, too,” said Flame. “Thankfully, they were not in use when I signed up, or I might have been just as discouraged.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Leslie sat down and just looked at me, speechless. I decided to let her think for a while about what we’d just said and sent, “Spectra, any change in the ghosts or tear out there?”

  “No, Shadow, except that while you fought that elemental the tear seemed to pulse a bit, almost as if it was trying to match the rhythm of the fight,” she sent. “There is something else, though. It is as if what we are looking at is not a tear, but a bulge.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “It is like space-time is trying to close the hole, but jump space is pushing into normal space, and it broke through here,” she sent.

  “So this is like some kind of weak spot?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I am starting to suspect this to be a natural phenomenon of some kind,” she sent.

  “Those ships are not natural, and somehow I imagine that collecting spaceships is not the normal behavior of ghosts,” I sent.

  “Maybe it is a natural tear, but someone found it and is taking advantage of it,” suggested Flame.

  “I like that better than facing someone who has the power to rip reality itself, that is for sure,” I sent. “Good work, Spectra, keep at it and find out what you can, but do not neglect your turn to rest when it comes up. I think we will be here a while, watching.”

  “Doctor, how much longer do you think he will sleep?” I asked.

  “Impossible to know. Probably hours,” she said.

  “Leslie, I want you to take some time to digest everything you just learned. We can talk again later and maybe even answer some questions for you. Until then, consider yourself a part of this crew, because you are.”

  “Thank you, sir,” she said.

  “Until he wakes, one of us will stand guard down here. Flame, please take first watch, and I will relieve you after I have eaten and had some rest,” I said. I wanted to take first watch, but I knew enough about magical exhaustion to know that I needed real food and rest or risk collapsing again.

  “Good idea, Shadow,” she said, then after a nice parting kiss I headed to the mess hall. The rest of that day and part of the next passed without incident. We continued to study the bulge in space and debate different ways we might be able to close it. The big worry that we had in this respect is that we would likely only get one shot at it before whoever was controlling the ghosts found out what we were up to and came to interfere.

  It was around midday when the magus awoke during Spectra’s watch. When I arrived in sickbay, he was lying in bed still restrained, with a look of defeat on his face. “Since there is a distinct lack of random lightning bolts, I think we can release him,” I said.

  Spectra moved to guard Leslie as Leslie used a remote terminal to retract the restraints that held the magus down. He slowly sat up and looked around the room until his eyes came to me. “Shadow!” he said with a gasp.

  “Yes,” I said, “and you are?”

  “Darius, sir,” he said.

  “Well then, Darius, suppose you tell me how a nice magus like yourself ended up on a ghost pirate ship that was attacking a civilian ore freighter?”

  He looked at me and said, “It would be easier for you to take my memory.”

  I was a bit surprised by this as it implied a level of trust, no, a level of submission that was far beyond what I would have expected. It would, however, make it very easy to know whether or not we could trust him. He would not be able to hide anything from us, so we would get a solid feel for him as a person through it, far better than we could through interrogation. “Okay, then, at your request I will view your memories.”

  ~~~

  Suddenly I was a young man serving as an engineer during the Great War. I was serving on the Basilisk, a fast attack destroyer that was on the front lines of the battle for Terathan XV. Our ship had been boarded, and foul creatures were laying siege to my engine room. They were the stuff that nightmares were made of. My men had the blast doors sealed, but the creatures had destroyed a section of the wall, and a fierce battle was being waged in that breach. Screams of men dying and the bone-chilling war cries of the enemy filled the air, making it virtually impossible to concentrate on maintaining command.

  “Sir! We can’t hold out much longer,” reported one of my men.

  “We must, there is nowhere to retreat to!” I called back. The Basilisk was doomed, but I was determined to keep her in the fight as long as my captain wanted us to. I would not
surrender my post. I grabbed some spare power cores and started working on a makeshift grenade, when a section of the enemy forces attacking us disappeared. They vanished in an instant, and suddenly it was as if they had never been there.

  “DUCK!” I cried out as I tossed my makeshift grenade at the remaining creatures. My explosive was more powerful than I had estimated it would be, and a section of the ship’s already heavily damaged hull collapsed.

  “Hull breach!” called out one of my men as everyone scrambled to pull on their helmets and lock their magnetic boots to the floor. The force of escaping air sucked the remaining creatures out into space, giving us temporary reprieve from the attack.

  “We have to seal that breach while we still have air. Put everyone that can still walk on it,” I ordered over the suit’s communication links.

  Following my own orders, I grabbed a welder and moved to assist with the mounting of armored plates over the breach. Soon we had the hole sealed and the room re-pressurized, but we were losing power fast. I ran to our power plants and saw they had taken serious damage during the fight with the boarders.

  “Bridge, this is engineering. We have a problem here,” I said over the ship’s comm but received no answer. I tried several more times but could not raise the bridge, no matter how hard I tried. I called several other departments until I finally got a response from medical. They told me we had lost the entire bridge crew, the captain, and most of the top officers in the last rush. That meant I was in charge, in charge of a dying ship on the front lines of a battle with hostile troops on board. A quick survey of the damage reports showed me that the ship was not salvageable, and the best hope would be to get the crew back to a carrier where they could be redeployed to new ships. Even if we retook the ship, we were in no shape to fight. My duty now was to save the men I still could.