I found her at our usual breakfast spot in the mess hall, poking at her food. “Hey,” I said softly as I approached.
“Can’t we go outside? It’s so bright in here,” she said.
I smiled. ‘Outside’ referred to the cold, hard vacuum of space, the native realm of our kind. “Maybe later, but after breakfast I have an appointment with Master Spectra,” I said.
“I noticed she and Master Dusty left the party early. I bet they didn’t get much sleep either,” she said with a coy smile.
“Actually, I’m sure they did. They took first shift this morning on the command deck,” I said.
She nodded, slowly; very slowly. “I guess we’re still a warship in enemy territory.”
While that was not technically true, we were in unclaimed space and we had just blown up a space station right under the noses of a battle fleet that was trying to claim it. That battle fleet would very much like to find us. We were probably clear of that danger by now, but it would be foolish to assume we were safe.
“Nemesis’s cloaks are excellent; I doubt that anyone will find us out here, but they are wise to keep the helm manned,” I noted.
We ate quietly for a while. The food did help to clear the fog a little. I’d sip on some more of the ship’s power on my way to the meeting, which would help.
“What did he mean?” asked Saraphym suddenly.
“Who?” I asked.
“Grandmaster Vydor. Last night he said that man was human and had lost his way.”
“Ah, yes. I’m not sure, but, well, being on the security force is emotionally draining. Some break under the pressure, some thrive on it, but most slowly waste away and become apathetic. It’s so ingrained and becomes so much a part of you that you don’t even realize it’s happening.”
“That sounds horrible,” she said.
“It is.” I remembered that part of my life only too well.
“Any idea why he chose this particular officer to save?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Probably his instinct, or he may have seen something in the officer’s aura that struck him as interesting.” I shrugged and took a bite from a Danish pastry. “You know how those wizard types are: they do odd things for no reason.”
“Watch yourself, wings,” she said.
“Well, it’s time for me to go,” I said, gathering my dishes. I paused there a moment and thought again about how different life had become. All my life I had been a loner, hunted merely because of my birth. Now I had people who thought of me as family. I suppose as a mundane I was still an outsider to some degree; perhaps more like a favorite cousin than immediate family.
“What mysteries dwell behind those beautiful eyes?” asked Saraphym.
“What? Oh, I was just wondering again how I got here,” I said, leaving her with a smile. If I allowed the conversation to continue, I’d be late.
As I walked through the hall, Shea joined me. She was radiating her customary happiness, and despite my general distrust of people, something about her had always made me want to trust her. People felt calmer and safer when she was around, which was insane.
“Is it true what they say about you?” I asked.
“That depends on what they’re saying.”
“That you’re from another universe.”
She nodded. “Master Dusty found me there and brought me back with him.”
“Oh? Why?” I asked.
She blushed a little. “Well, I basically demanded it of him.”
“There is a story there,” I observed.
“Greymere, your story and mine are not that different. I was born an alchemist, and because of that I was hunted all my life. I moved from place to place hoping to stay hidden, but eventually I’d be found and have to flee. People who were close to me were often killed. Master Dusty represented an escape from all that, and I took it.”
“Much as I’m doing,” I said quietly.
She nodded. “I won’t tell you it’s easy for me or that it’ll be no problem for you, but I will tell you it’s been worth it.” She waved her hand in a sweeping motion and said, “Here, you and I have family we don’t have to hide from. Where else are you going to find that?”
“Nowhere.” I had tried in the past, and many had died because of that.
“Exactly. Here on Nemesis, back on the hospital station and in the Wizard Kingdom itself, misfits like you and me have a home.”
“How do you stay so happy when your past is as dark as mine?” I asked her.
She stopped me and took my arm. “Light has brought me here and given me this blessing of family and friends. How could I not be happy with that?”
I felt something in her touch and in her words. Something stirred deep down inside me, too subtle to grasp.
I smiled back and said, “Perhaps I can learn to be happy too.”
She smiled up at me and the darkness that followed me seemed to fade a little.
“Greymere, you’re a kind soul; I can see that. You have some callouses to work through, but that doesn’t change who you are inside.”
I swallowed. The way she was holding me and looking at me should have been awkward, but somehow it was not; all I could feel coming from her was warmth and joy. The joy was almost overpowering. For a moment, I could forget all the people I had killed during my lifetime and all the people who had died because of my secret. I could briefly live in that joy.
I sighed and said, “Someday we must have a meal together so I can hear about this other universe. A place that could make a person like you is somewhere I’d like to visit.”
“That place almost destroyed me. It was here in this universe, as a member of Dusty’s team, that Light made me who I am today.”
I wanted to ask more, to know this joy she had, but time was running out. “I still want to hear your story. Perhaps we could have dinner together one night?”
She nodded. “Sure, on one condition.”
“And that is?”
“Bring Saraphym. It would be good for her to hear my story. It might help her understand you better.”
And that way you won’t risk giving rise to jealousy, I thought to myself.
“Deal,” I said. It was a wise plan.
13
02-05-0065 — Greymere
When Shea and I arrived at the command center, we found Master Dusty and Master Spectra conferring quietly.
“We’ll be right with you,” said Master Dusty as we entered.
Shea took my arm and pulled me down to her level. “Greymere, you can be happy again. You and Saraphym are a good match; don’t let your past fears hold you back from her.”
Somehow she saw right through me. I was holding back from Saraphym because of all the corpses that littered my past. It had always been dangerous for anyone to grow close to me. “Thanks,” I responded softly and rose to my full height.
Master Dusty was watching and I started to apologize, but he waved me away. “Please sit down.”
We gathered around a central table and Nanny brought us refreshments. Each of us was given something completely different. My own drink was a sweet liquid laced with some kind of beads which held power. The beads broke apart in my mouth, transferring the energy directly into my system. It was the most wonderful thing I had ever tasted.
“Before we start, I noticed that Grandmaster Vydor took you aside last night. Is there anything I need to know?” asked Dusty.
“Not really, Master. He said that he might have someone who will need training soon, someone for whom my skill set will be a good match for. He wanted to know if I’d be willing to take on this person. I told him I would, and he said that if anything came of it he’d speak with you first. That’s the gist of it,” I said.
“What person?” asked Spectra.
“Someone who is currently a security agent in the old empire. I have little information beyond that,” I said.
“Another one of the Shadow People?” asked Dusty.
“No, he said the person was hu
man,” I replied.
“Very well, if anything comes of it we’ll pursue it. Obviously if he asks you to do something, you should do it, being that he is Grandmaster and all that,” said Dusty.
Spectra and Dusty shared a look and then Dusty said, “Greymere, do you remember what we told you about necromancers?”
“That they’re spiritualists gone bad?” I replied.
“Yes and no,” said Dusty.
“The truth is, we haven’t been completely honest about them in the past; not even to ourselves. Necromancers are more like adult spiritualists,” said Spectra.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Spectra stood and paced a moment. As if something had just occurred to her, she turned to me and asked, “What is the Spirit Realm like?”
“You lived there a long time,” I replied.
“Yes, but how did you perceive it?” she asked.
“For my people, energy is food. We can’t produce it; we need to find it. Here in this realm, that means either surfing the vacuum of space or tapping into an energy source created by people. Different sources taste different; most are only tolerable, some are really foul, but anything really good is a rare find. “That place is like an endless sea of the most delicious energy you can imagine, begging you to drink it in. The energy is enticing to all the senses; I can still almost perceive it … ” I let my voice trail off as I remembered.
Shea was watching me closely as I spoke. I wondered what she was looking for, but before I could ask Spectra continued.
“What would have happened if you had drunk in that power?”
“I would have been lost forever. I could see that in the pattern after I had been there a while. There is a kind of shadow under that power that was not obvious when I first arrived. It was as if the place had an intelligence of its own and wanted me.”
Spectra nodded. “That shadow is the true essence of the place.” She paused and asked, “Do you know how magic works?”
“Magi summon the primal energy of creation, what you call the weave, and reshape it into what they need it to be,” I said.
“Yes, wizards and sorcerers both work that way. The weave is like a fuel tank, powering their spells. The main exception is spellweavers, like Grandmaster Vydor. They can directly weave the power into anything and also have the power to unweave, which may be their greatest skill.”
I nodded. “Saraphym explained all this to me.”
“We have discovered there are several different kinds of magic. As I mentioned, most magi tap the weave for power. There are also life weavers, like Master Kellyn, who weaves life force directly, and of course Shea, whose awesome power is a class of its own.”
Shea blushed. “Oh, I have no power of my own. Light just chooses to work through me.”
Spectra smiled fondly at her. “Master Raquel and her team work in the sphere of nature.”
I nodded. “I remember her talking about that.”
Shea perked up. “So she is a ranger?”
Master Spectra shook her head. “No; she calls her specialization the Sac’a’rith. ‘Ranger’ is a different specialization of nature, just as pyromancy is a specialization of weave magic. You’ll have to ask her about that; like so many things about magic, it’s new to us.”
Shea nodded. “So that gives us three so far: life, nature, and the third: ‘magery’?”
Spectra shrugged. “We haven’t officially named them yet, but Raquel calls them nature-craft, life-craft and mage-craft.”
Dusty smiled. “They will probably become the official titles. We are still discovering the rules, and there are many exceptional cases resulting from the chaos of the healing.”
“Spiritualists are also different,” Spectra said slowly. She hesitated, considering how to phrase what she wanted to say. “Most types of magic draw their power from whichever realm the magus is in. Spellweavers reach out to - well, I’m not sure it has a separate name, but it is the reality outside the realms. It is what the realms themselves are made of and live in. We just call it the Weave,” explained Spectra.
“Yes, Master, what the mundanes call jump space,” I said.
She nodded. “But spiritualists are different. We draw our power from the Spirit Realm. Every spell we cast is powered by the energy of that realm.”
A thick silence fell following that revelation. There was a dark truth behind it. Everyone that visited that realm was warned not to tap its power. Any use of that power, no matter how small, potentially changed a person and not in a good way.
“So, Master, every time you cast you are closer to becoming a necromancer?” I said.
She nodded. “That is the real reason why the spiritual line of power is banned.”
“How, then, does anyone avoid that fate?” I asked.
“They don’t; at least, history does not record anyone who has not turned,” said Master Dusty grimly.
“Narcion, whom you traveled with, became a necromancer while trying to use his powers to save someone he loved. Later, before you met him, he tried hard to turn back that mistake and become a wizard again, but the stain was always there,” said Spectra.
“No,” came Shea’s quiet voice. “He succeeded. I saw it; he died a wizard through and through.”
“What about you, Master? And Master Kellyn?” I asked.
“Master Kellyn is a powerful spiritualist, but she is also a life weaver,” said Spectra.
“It is more than that; she has Light to protect and guide her,” said Shea.
“And you two?” I pressed. I didn’t know what Shea meant, but Master Kellyn was not my main concern.
They looked at each other and back to me. “I have lived in the Spirit Realm for a long time and know its secrets. I have been to the edge of evil and back again.” She paused, looked at Shea and said, “I have danced with darkness, but I have a new partner now.” She smiled and pulled Dusty close.
The three of them shared a smile and Spectra continued. “I am teaching Dusty and I believe he can overcome it as I have done up to now, but we have a ship full of immature spiritualists.”
I nodded. “Master, will you have to take them all there to teach them?”
“I think so,” said Master Spectra with uncharacteristic uncertainty. “Look, the truth is I don’t really know what will work and what won’t. It just feels like the right course of action; the same course I took with Dusty.”
“That is where you two come in,” said Master Dusty.
“Us?”
“You two are the only non-spiritualists on the ship: Shea, a cleric and you, a mundane. We need you to watch for signs that our course of action is failing, and warn us in time to intervene with anyone who seem likely to give in to temptation,” said Master Dusty.
Master Spectra met my eyes and said, “It is likely that you are Saraphym’s only hope.”
14
02-16-0065 - Lyshell
These are not patrols; this is a full-scale deployment, I realized as I watched the local security forces take positions around the city. They were leap-frogging each other, moving into place. Some were setting up barriers and taking up position behind them. Their weapons were out and they were moving with purpose. It appeared they were preparing for an invasion.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
I snapped my head around to see what the noise was and saw armor-plating being lowered over the windows and doors of all the buildings. It seemed I would be impersonating Commander Mikale outside all night. No, that wasn’t right; I was Commander Mikale and am again, or something like that. There was a memory buried deep in my organic mind, but I couldn’t quite retrieve it.
As I monitored the deployment of the soldiers, an instinct deep down inside was urging me to flee. The problem was that there was no place to flee to now that the buildings were all secure. For the first time in years, I was undecided as to what to do next. I stayed hidden in the shadows as more equipment and troops moved into defensive positions.
I decided to risk
exposing my position by connecting to the secure subnet on datanet to listen in on the local security communications and see if I could ascertain what in the name of the Emperor was going on.
At first all I heard were the standard status updates, various squads calling that they had reached their position or that all was clear in their sector; nothing helpful. With the suddenness of an explosion, things began to happen just as astronomical twilight ended.
Lights flashed and weapons fired all over the city as the local forces engaged an enemy I had not yet seen.
Orders came in fast and furious over the command channels, and through them I was able to build a rough image of the battle. In three different sectors the local security forces were engaged in extended firefights, and the rest of the sectors were ordered to hold their ground. One of the sectors sounded like it was in real trouble, and I was about to head that direction when an explosion rocked the buildings around me, sending debris flying.
A soldier cursed and called out for help. He was pinned under some debris, and a massive hole in the street cut him off from any assistance. I slowly moved towards him, watching for the source of the explosion, when three short figures charged out of the shadows and surrounded him. He screamed out in pain and fell silent.
I had been too cautious and that had cost him his life. I prepared a complaint to file against myself later, after I had switched back to being Officer Lyshell.
The short figures leapt into the hole and charged out the other side into the waiting fire of the security forces. More figures broke from the shadows and charged the line of defenders. I did not recognize their species, and in the dark, the best I could tell was they were human-like in shape and temperature.
I moved as fast as I could while staying hidden in the shadows to get a better look at the battle. The attackers were pouring out of the ground and outnumbered the defenders by at least ten to one, but did not seem to be armed. Instead they were charging and being cut down by the defenders’ weapons.
One creature stopped in his run and threw something at the soldiers. They saw it coming and scattered just in time. It must have been some kind of explosive grenade. When it hit the ground, fire and debris were thrown everywhere and what had once been a secure position was now a hole in the ground. The soldiers were falling back, trying to establish a new defensive line, but the attackers were too fast for them.
Mage Hunter (Lost Tales of Power Book 8) Page 7
