The market area was busier than I expected; there was a mixture of wizards in robes and some in battle armor, even some people in ordinary clothing whom I assumed to be mundanes. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood and very sociable. I did my best to slip through the crowds without talking to anyone, as I was concerned about how much time I had to shop.
I finally found the store I was looking for and was greeted by walls and walls of electronic equipment. There appeared to be tablets of every color, size and shape. At first there were too many choices, and I couldn’t decide where to start looking. Several times a sales rep came up to offer assistance, but I was determined to pick this out on my own. I knew what I was looking for and didn’t want to listen to a sales spiel.
When I finally found the right section, I quickly scanned the specification cards and selected the best unit there. It was expensive, but I had enough as long as the school kept providing food and shelter. When I brought it to the counter the sales representative asked, “Are you sure you want this one?”
“Sure. Why not? It’s the best you have.”
“Yes, but it’s thirty per cent more expensive than one step down, but only about five per cent faster.”
I could see where he was going, but I wanted, no I- needed - the best. That five per cent could mean life or death someday. “I understand.”
“Look, it’s your money to waste, but with the price difference you could get the optional contacts and still come out ahead.”
“Contacts?” I asked.
“You wear them on your eyes, and you have access to the datapad through them. They’re made from all-natural materials so they won’t interfere with your casting. They’re manufactured, so they can’t hold magical energy, but they won’t block it either.”
“Really? I would have a complete visual interface?” I said.
He nodded. “Here, let me get you a set and you can try them yourself.”
He fished around under the counter and pulled out a box, in which were two clear lenses soaking in a clear liquid. “We don’t get much call for these here. They’re too close to cyborg implants, I guess. Whatever the reason, most people are skittish about them.”
I nodded. I didn’t care what other people thought, just desperately wanted to try them; needed to try them. I could almost feel them calling to me.
“Now, you’ll need to take these out when you sleep, but apart from that you can wear them all day if you like.”
It took some doing but eventually I got them in, and a heads-up display appeared in my view that looked very much like the standard datapad screen.
“These are running in demo mode; let’s set you up on a datapad so you can see how they work.” He went over to the shelf and pulled down the second-best datapad in the store, and I signed in with my Wizard Kingdom account. When I was connected he walked me through linking the contacts to the datapad, and within moments I was able to navigate the various screens and menus with only my eyes.
“Oh, this is amazing,” I said. A sense of euphoria passed through me; I had to bite back a joyful giggle.
“You’re a real natural at this. Most people take a while to get used to it.”
I nodded. “You don’t know how much this means to me. I’ll take this set-up.”
As he rang up the purchase, I used the customization screens to make it look as close as possible to what I had lost.
I slowly reached out with my mind and tried to lift something off the counter, and to my relief it lifted just as expected. The contacts didn’t interfere at all.
As I left the store, data was flowing through my vision again just like old times. Granted, I didn’t have full access to the Imperial Database and there was no threat display or other tactical screens, but I had a datastream and the datapad could take the place of one or two of the subcores I’d given up. I felt a little more whole.
38
07-12-0065 — Greymere
“Phym? You about ready?” I asked. She was wearing her standard-issue body armor, which bore her rank insignia and division emblem as its only markings, and even those were hidden when facing battle. The full black armor was form-fitting, clearly showing her athletic figure, but nothing compared to the way she looked in the vacuum of space in her native form. A smile escaped my lips as I remembered her true form.
Saraphym smiled. “Yes, but are we really leaving for good?”
“Not this trip. This is just to get to know Lyshell. He’ll need more training before he’s ready to take the field. For the moment we’ll just meet with him on a regular basis.”
She nodded. “I know, but after that?”
“The future is not written, but the current plan is to go on an extended mission with Sub-Master Raquel. You can stay behind if you like; Master Dusty would be happy to have you as a hostage to get me back,” I said with a big grin.
“Without you?”
I nodded. “Lyshell needs me.”
“Then there’s no way, Wings. You’re not leaving me behind!”
I smiled. “That’s a condition I made, actually: that you can come with me.”
She pulled me into a hug. “That’s so sweet!”
“We’d better get up to the conference room. It wouldn’t be a good idea to keep Master Spectra waiting.” We had some time to spare but not much. We had had this conversation a few times already; she was nervous about leaving but unwilling to stay behind. She feared losing me and she feared losing her home. It seemed that the fear of losing me overcame the fear of losing her home, for which I was grateful. Repeating the conversation would not help, however, so I wanted to move on.
I understood how she felt. I like my home here too, but the Wizard Kingdom had given me so much, including a safe place for our race to live. How could I turn down a simple request to help someone else?
“No, that wouldn’t be good,” she said with mock fear.
Master Spectra was capable of making someone’s life a waking nightmare, but she would never do anything to hurt either of us. I had rarely seen her use her power, but the little I had seen let me know that crossing her would be extremely unwise. I was very glad to be on her side.
We made for the conference room and found Shea and Master Spectra already there. After exchanging greetings Master Spectra opened a gate, and we went through into a new realm.
We came out in a clearing in front of an old house built from wood. I had seen communities with those kinds of house; they usually had all the modern conveniences but were built to look old-fashioned. This one, I suspected, lacked any modern touches, but it had all the charm.
Around the clearing was a thick forest. The air was filled with the sound of birds and bugs. Some chairs were arranged on the porch of the house, where Master Raquel and Lyshell were sitting talking. The house had a brick chimney, but the weather was pleasant and no smoke rose from it.
Master Spectra walked up to the house, and Master Raquel and Lyshell came down from the porch to greet us.
“By the Light! This place is gorgeous!” exclaimed Shea.
Master Raquel smiled. “I’m glad you like it. My husband and I spent quite some time exploring this planet, and as far as we can tell it is otherwise uninhabited and has been since we started to visit.”
“Wow! Zah’rak and company would love it here,” I said.
Raquel smiled. “Yes, they would.”
“I’d like some time alone with Lyshell to get a read on how he’s doing, Masters,” sent Shea across the telepathic network.
“Certainly,” replied Master Raquel over the link.
Shea took Lyshell onto the porch and they sat around a small table. There was a pitcher and cups, but I couldn’t tell what was in them.
“Come this way; there is something I wish to show you,” said Master Raquel.
The rest of us followed her into the woods and came to a large river. The water was clear and flowing fast. The current looked too fast for swimming, but the sound of the rushing water was calming. With no
other inhabitants, the river was probably as pure as it looked, a rarity on most worlds in the Empire.
“Oh!” exclaimed Master Spectra. She ran up to the edge and dipped her hand into the water. “I’d love to bring Dusty here. He hasn’t been able to have a good swim in ages.”
“Bring him here by all means but no one else. This has been a secret retreat for my husband and I for a very long time,” said Master Raquel.
Master Spectra grinned. “No sharing. I can definitely get on board with that.”
Master Raquel returned her smile. “If you wish to build a small residence here as we have, please do so. There are several water wheels in the river close to the house to generate power, but for the most part there is no technology here.”
“Wings, can we fly here?” asked Saraphym, looking blissfully at the sky.
I shook my head. “No, the gravity would crush us. That’s why we have to transition at the edge of the gravity field when entering or exiting a spaceship.”
Master Spectra looked up. “But I saw you fly in the Spirit Realm, and there’s gravity there.”
“That place is different, Master. The energies there are not the same as here or Vydoria, and gravity seems to work differently there. The Spirit Realm is a large, solid flat plane, and gravity always pulls towards the center of mass; if gravity worked like it does here, it would pull you back as you moved out from the center and as you got closer you would accelerate towards it. That doesn’t happen, so I can fly there but I can’t explain why.”
Master Spectra looked thoughtful and then looked at Saraphym. “You have a spell that would let you take on the form of a spirit, and those could fly if you really want to get up there.”
She shook her head. “No, that’s not the same, Master. It’s fine; I’ll stay down here.”
Master Spectra sat on the bank, took off her boots and lowered her feet into the water. “Oh, Dusty will be very jealous when he hears what I’ve been up to.”
“Could he really swim in that?” I asked. The way the water was rushing by, I wouldn’t want to fall in. I knew that Master Dusty was an amphibious species, but it seemed dangerous even for him.
She smiled as she looked at the river. “Oh, he’d probably get swept downstream, but he’d love every minute of it.”
“Several kilometers downstream there is a large lake, so he would not go beyond that,” commented Master Raquel.
“Presumably there are other planets in this realm. Are they inhabited? Perhaps there is an advanced race who could reach this planet someday,” I said.
Master Raquel shrugged. “I have a marker for this planet only. Doubtless there is life out there somewhere. If they come, we can find a new paradise. Until then, enjoy this sanctuary.”
We sat there for a while, just enjoying the fresh air and the sounds of nature. It was so alien after spending decades living in space, but at the same time it felt welcoming. Mine was an odd sort of double life; I was born for the vacuum of space, and yet all this nature felt as much like home as the vacuum did.
“How is Lyshell’s magical training coming?” I asked.
Master Raquel sighed. “He has mastered the basic powers, so I’ll start him on real casting now. He still does not believe in himself, so I suspect it’ll be hard to get him far enough along to be useful.”
“Ask Phoenix to help,” said Master Spectra.
“Who is that?” I asked.
Master Spectra looked at me. “Phoenix leads the second division of the Battle Wizards, or rather he did; I think he stepped down recently. More to the point, he’s an expert in both power and poor self-esteem. When we were students he was Dusty’s tutor, and later he served with us as a member of the first team of Battle Wizards under Master Shadow.”
Master Raquel nodded. “I have heard of him, but have not yet made his acquaintance. Pyromancer, right?”
Spectra nodded. “He’s a bit of a clown; maybe more than a bit, but I think he’ll be just the person to teach Lyshell. He has a history of helping magi with low self-esteem and has been very successful.”
“Master Raquel is going to hate him, isn’t she?” I sent privately to Master Spectra.
“Oh, I don’t know. I think her strict exterior is a cover. I suspect that, given time, we’ll find there is a mischievous side to her,” was her reply.
“I will seek him out. Thank you,” said Master Raquel.
“How long do you think this training will take, Masters?” asked Saraphym.
Master Raquel shrugged. “A studious and dedicated student could have sufficient foundation to travel with us in several months, but he is probably neither; so I would estimate at least a year.”
“Perhaps we can gather some information while we wait then, Master? I would think we would want our first mission with him to be an easy one,” I commented.
“Unlike our last mission together,” she replied.
“That might be a bit much,” I said.
Master Raquel grinned. “There have been reports of magi going missing out in Phareon. So far it is nothing but rumor. The mission should suit Lyshell. It is a rough region of space, so there will be some action and a lot of time for reflection.”
I nodded. “Makes sense. It should appeal to the hunter in him.”
“What happened on your last mission?” asked Saraphym.
“Oh, nothing much. We just chased an ancient necromancer and his army of undead to his castle and eventually took the fight all the way to the Spirit Realm,” I said casually.
“I’m still so sorry I wasn’t there,” said Master Spectra softly.
“You didn’t even know we existed at that time,” I noted.
“Yes, but things might have turned out differently had I been there,” she said.
That had been the mission where Master Raquel’s husband was killed. I had no doubt having Master Spectra there would have changed things greatly, but there was no sense in being sorry about the impossible not happening.
“Thank you, Spectra. I have accepted that what happened was destined to occur,” said Master Raquel.
Something in her voice told me that her heart wasn’t in her words. I tossed a rock into the river and said, “That necromancer is still out there. We’ll find him again someday and when we do, Master Spectra, perhaps you can teach him a thing or two about messing with family.”
Spectra looked directly at Master Raquel with a strength and determination in her eyes that would freeze the blood of the stoutest hero.
“Count on it,” she said.
39
07-12-0065 — Greymere
As evening fell across the forest, we headed back to Nemesis for the evening meal. Grandmaster Vydor and Master Dusty joined us in the captain’s dining hall. Nanny, of course, was there, of course, our ever-faithful ghost cook. Nemesis himself stayed quiet, but I felt sure he was watching. He was funny like that. He’d talk with me freely in engineering and even start the conversation, but elsewhere if I wanted to talk with him I had to initiate it.
I was anxious to hear Shea’s report on Lyshell but she said that would have to wait until the next day, as she wanted time to process her thoughts. I knew she would find the positive in him, and through her work with him she would encourage that. It was a natural talent she had that I often wished I possessed. My life had made me callous, always assuming the worst, and yet with a similar background she wasn’t hard.
Over dinner the talk was mostly light; Lyshell kept to himself, but I was sure he was listening to every word. His eyes kept moving as he constantly checked the room. It was a trait he had not lost from his time in the Imperial Guard; a good habit, but one which might make people less likely to trust him.
As we finished the main course, Master Spectra asked, “Any news regarding the tear?”
Grandmaster Vydor shook his head. “I am afraid not.”
“Tear, Master?” I asked.
Master Spectra turned to me and said, “Do you recall how ten thousand years ago, the Counc
il of Wizards tore reality in an attempt to stop the sorcerers once and for all?”
I nodded. I had studied that history extensively, as I was trying to understand the life that Saraphym was leading. “Yes, and during Operation Show of Force Master Shadow led you and the others to close two of the tears. Later a third tear was closed by Grandmaster Vydor, at Arken IV, stabilizing magic and beginning a return to normality - or the ‘new normal’, at least.”
Grandmaster Vydor smiled. “Or so we thought.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He said, “We thought we understood what magic should be. We had developed a basic theory and had developed a model. After closing the tears magic matched that model, which led to the assumption that the spell had finally been undone and we could carry on in what was now the normal. We were wrong.”
Master Spectra nodded. “There were hints of a problem at the time, but we all wrote them off as lingering effects of the spell which would clear up in time. From what we can tell, even our enemies thought all the tears were closed, and so much had changed that it never occurred to us that we were still far from the base line.”
This surprised me; there was nothing in the official record about it. “Masters, what told you that you were wrong?”
Grandmaster Vydor nodded to Master Raquel, who smiled. “I did.”
“How?” I asked.
She took a deep breath. “As you know, I come from a time when magic was normal and natural. I know how magic should work and it is still wrong, very much so.”
Lyshell looked up and asked, “How so, Master?”
It was the first question I had heard him ask all night. I didn’t know why this topic had drawn him in, but I was glad it had. He needed social interaction.
Master Raquel looked at him and said, “There are distinct spheres of magic. One, normally called nature-craft, is the sphere where your powers, mine and Ragnar’s belong. Another, mage-craft, is where the elementalists draw their power and is by far the most common. A third, life-craft, gives rise to Master Kellyn’s healing arts. Then there is spirit-craft, which is the domain of Master Spectra. Spellweavers are a distinct group in themselves. There are some others, but those are the primary spheres.”
Mage Hunter (Lost Tales of Power Book 8) Page 19
