Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set

by P. E. Padilla

  He looked into her eyes again with those depthless orbs, sincerity and tenderness all but leaking from them. “That sounds like a good idea to me.” He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Anything for you.”

  She felt heat travel from her cheek and radiate down to her core like liquid fire. Then it traveled back up her back, between her shoulder blades as goose bumps. She froze, reveling in the feeling.

  Then she saw that crooked smile of his appear on his beaming face and he stepped back, drew his staff—in the form of the two fighting sticks—from the loops on his back, and assume a ready stance. “Ready?” he asked.

  Her smile met his and she felt peace and energy return to her. “Ready” she said. And then she attacked.

  Rindu, standing just outside the clearing where they set up camp, watched Sam and Nalia sparring. More importantly, he watched their interaction before sparring. He had been watching them for the last several days, noticing the game they were playing, each trying to look at the other without being seen. He smiled.

  It was probably not the appropriate time for the two to become attached in such a way. Distractions could be fatal when dealing with the likes of the Gray Man and his minions. But he loved his daughter, and he was happy to see her smile. He had not seen her smile, or in any other way indicate happiness, for many years.

  Since the death of her mother, Nalia had thrown herself into her training, becoming harder every day. She erected an impervious barrier around herself and did not let anyone in. She softened it slightly when they took in Cristin, but then when the woman betrayed them, Nalia buried any semblance of human compassion deep, where no one could touch it.

  He knew that he himself was not the man he was. When his wife was murdered, he felt as if he had lost the reason for his existence. If it was not for Nalia, he would have traveled to the Gray Fortress and tried to kill the Gray Man right then, no doubt dying. But he did not, because of his daughter. He was a harder man now than he was before, but he recognized his lack of emotion. In fact, he purposely shunned emotion of any kind, as a protection. But he could resurrect human feeling when necessary, such as when dealing with his daughter.

  When Sam joined them, Rindu’s heart felt lighter. Not only did it prompt the group to go and finally confront the Gray Man, but Sam seemed to the mage to be what a son would have been, had he been given the opportunity for more offspring. And his potential, his potential was incredible. These things gave him hope and allowed him to feel emotion again. Allowed him to give himself permission to feel again.

  Now that Nalia was also feeling, he could see the small child he so loved, the girl with constant wonder in her eyes. She had always been curious, she always needed to know everything. He took great joy in seeing her every day, training, growing up, becoming the person and the warrior she now was. What he had just seen in her eyes made him think that the little girl who he had not seen in so long was finally coming out into the open again.

  Chances were good that none of them would survive their quest. At least she would find happiness and maybe love before that happened. He could clearly see the rohw signatures of the two combatants even at this distance and she was glowing more powerfully than he had seen in many years. She was finding her balance again, and it was good.

  Chapter 34

  For the life of him, Sam couldn’t figure out how he had generated the powerful pulse that threw back the road block and swept all his enemies away so forcefully. He had asked Rindu, but the Zouy, as enigmatic as ever, simply suggested he go back to juggling the pebbles he now used to replace the seed pods. Infuriating.

  In his daily practice with Rindu, Sam was learning and developing new ways to use the rohw. Rindu was explaining something new they would do in training. “I want you to imagine the rohw passing through your arms, Sam. Hold them straight out in front of you, close your eyes, and picture the rohw entering your body through your feet from the ground, circulating up through your body’s channels, and out of your hands. Do not open your eyes until I tell you to do so. Is that clear?”

  “Yes,” Sam said.

  “No matter what you hear, no matter what you feel, you are to focus on the rohw flowing through your arms and out of your hands. Nothing else. You have shown that you can concentrate acceptably, so do not let your focus lapse now.”

  “I won’t.”

  Sam closed his eyes and began his rhythmic breathing, picturing the energy as it traveled through his body. Soon, he was mesmerized by the familiar breathing pattern and by watching the energy flow in his mind’s eye.

  He felt something cold on his arms. Just a shadow of a feeling, but it was definitely there. His body wanted to shift attention to it, but Sam fought the thought and redoubled his efforts at focusing on the energy flow.

  The pressure on his arm grew more insistent. Again, he increased his concentration. More pressure. More concentration. Three more times his body threatened to take his focus from his task, but he maintained his concentration. Sam realized he was sweating from the exertion of just maintaining focus. The drip of sweat that traveled slowly down the side of his face almost dashed his concentration, but he persevered.

  “Sam,” Rindu’s voice sounded as if it was far away. “Sam, I want you to slowly open your eyes. Sam. Sam, open your eyes.”

  What the Zouy was saying finally registered in his mind. He slowly opened his eyes, slowly enough that the light did not hurt. They had been closed for some time, after all.

  As he was able to focus, he saw, stacked up on his outstretched arms, a large pile of flat stones with a larger log on top of the topmost stone. Seeing that, and realizing it was impossible for him to be holding it up, his arms gave way under the weight and the stones and the log came crashing down.

  He jumped back to avoid being struck by the crashing weight and looked toward Rindu, off to his right. The Zouy stood there with a smirk on his face. Dr. Walt stood with a look of open wonder on his. Nalia was there as well, mask off and displaying a proud smile. Even Skitter was there, though he had jumped back when Sam dropped the load he was carrying, fur standing straight out like a bottle brush.

  “What was that about?” Sam asked.

  “What did you see,” Rindu asked in return, “as you opened your eyes?”

  “I saw a lot of weight on my arms. More weight than it is physically possible to hold up, especially with outstretched arms.”

  “What you say is true.” Rindu’s single eyebrow raised. “It was more weight than it is physically possible to hold. But you were not holding it physically.”

  Sam was incredulous. “Are you saying that I was holding those, that it wasn’t a trick or that you weren’t helping me?”

  “It was you. More accurately, it was your rohw, the energy you were borrowing and channeling from your surroundings.”

  “But that’s, that’s impossible!” Sam cried.

  “Nevertheless, you did it. You did it, that is, until you opened your eyes and saw what it was that you were doing. Then your belief that it was impossible made it so. It is as the two stones, one that could fly across the water and land safely on the other side and one that sunk like a rock. The skipping stone believed it could get across the water, but the sinking stone did not.”

  Sam waited to see if there was any more to the parable. After a full minute of silence, he shrugged. “Ok. So, how to I keep myself from holding back like that? How do I do impossible things without thinking they are impossible?”

  Nalia chimed in. “That is the secret to achieving your potential, in the use of the rohw and in all other things. To do, you must first believe. If you believe, perhaps nothing is impossible.”

  Sam remained silent.

  She continued. “Sam, I know that it sounds like some parable or superstition, but it is the truth. I remember my father trying to explain it to me, but when he did so I was very young, so I did not yet believe things were impossible. This made it easier for me. For you, you must be able to control your belief and
you will see that you are capable of amazing things.”

  “I’ll try,” he said, head spinning with all the possibilities.

  Rindu clapped him on the shoulder. “You see, Sam, if you know what things others have done, it will help you determine what may be possible for you. With the demonstration just now, you can see that your muscles can be augmented with the rohw, to such an extent that something that seems superhuman can be done.

  “All things involving the rohw follow natural laws. Once those laws are known, it is only your ingenuity, imagination, and belief that limits you. You have an advantage in that you are familiar with the science from your world. It has enabled you to learn natural laws that perhaps even the Zouy do not know. With my training, your practice, and the understanding of the laws of the world that you have, you could become one of the most powerful vibrational energy users ever.”

  Sam looked into the monk’s eyes, considering. Maybe Rindu was right. There were some things that Sam had wondered about. The more he learned, the more he saw how the laws of nature he learned in conjunction with his world’s science fit in with what Rindu, and even Nalia, were teaching him. As he thought, something he had wondered popped into his mind.

  “Rindu, I hate to change the subject, but do you know anything of the relationship between vibrational energy and the taste or scent of food?”

  The emotion that painted the face of the Zouy was something Sam had never seen on the man. It was difficult to know for sure because he hid emotion so well, but if Sam had to guess, he would say that it was a mixture of surprise, horror, and—could it be?—embarrassment.

  His features immediately shifted to his normal blank expression, making Sam wonder if he’d seen it there at all. “Why do you ask?”

  “I read something a few months ago about how there are some scientists on my world who believe that the sense of smell works through vibrations. The existing theory is that it works on the shapes of the molecules, a ‘lock and key’ type of mechanism, but there has been some discussion about vibration making a difference. “

  Rindu nodded slightly. “I see. Well, it is not general knowledge, but yes, vibrational energy can affect smell and taste. I…uh…tried some things when I was a child at the Zouyim Temple. I had been experimenting with the phenomenon and there were several cases in which I changed the taste of a fellow disciple’s food, mostly through its scent, much to his chagrin.” He was beginning to look uncomfortable. Sam wondered not for the first time how he had ever though Rindu showed no emotion. He had grown to know him so well that he realized Rindu showed emotions on his face, but the expressions were much smaller and easier to miss if you didn’t look closely.

  “You used the rohw to play pranks on other disciples?” Nalia asked. “You, the master of following rules exactly? The ‘every rule is a rule for a reason, Nalia, so you must always abide by them’ Zouy?” She had started waggling a finger at him in an exaggerated manner.

  “I was young. Children will play.” His face looked even more like stone after being scolded by his daughter.

  Sam started laughing at the thought of a smaller Rindu using his prodigious abilities to annoy others. Rindu was unable to keep the faraway look from his eyes and the slight smile from his mouth. Nalia couldn’t resist and she was laughing as well, as was Dr. Walt. There was even amusement Skitter was pushing into Sam’s mind at the image of the small Rindu, one who looked exactly the same as now but half the size. Sam laughed harder at Skitter’s misunderstanding of human growth and the miniature Rindu who was jumping around in his mind.

  “That is the kind of thing I was talking about, Sam. If you meditate upon it, I am sure you can discover new ways to use the rohw. Abilities discovered in this way are always more powerful than those which are taught simply because when you must figure it out yourself, you know it more intimately. Try to use the same process for finding a solution to travel to your world and perhaps you will not need the Gray Man’s information.”

  Chapter 35

  Later that day, Nalia pulled Sam aside. “Sam, I must ask you something.”

  “Of course, Nalia. Anything. What is it?”

  She fidgeted as she paused. She actually fidgeted. “I would ask that you teach me some of your language. I would speak with you in your tongue.”

  Sam’s eyes widened and his mouth opened before he realized what he was doing. “You…you want to learn English? You want me to teach you? Why?”

  He could sense her embarrassment through her mask. Her words came in a rush, “Forget that I spoke. I am sorry,” and she turned to leave.

  Sam gently grabbed her arm and turned her toward him. “No, Nalia. Please, don’t leave. I was just surprised. You haven’t shown any interest in my language before, so it just surprised me, that’s all. I would love to teach it to you. It would be my pleasure, my privilege, and my honor.”

  She cocked her head while looking at him, obviously trying to decide if he was mocking her. “It is your language, Sam. I would share it with you, if you would teach me. It may make you feel better to hear a familiar tongue, though you are far from home.”

  Unable to control himself, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her to him. “Thank you, Nalia. That means a lot to me. It would be great to share my language with you. We can start now.” As he released her, he noticed that her arms had wrapped around him briefly as well, and it felt right. No, not right. It felt perfect. When they separated, he immediately felt a small sense of loss, but worked hard not to show it on his face.

  He started with her as they had started with him, by pointing at things and saying the names in both Kasmali and English.

  Three days later, the party reached Greenfeld. As they came through the rolling foothills in a region that was, as far as Sam could tell, where the California-Oregon border would be in his world, the group took a moment to stop and get their bearings.

  Sam looked northward from the top of a hill and could see the land rise and fall like verdant waves. He thought he could see some sort of structures just at the edge of his sight and there was a haze that seemed to be rising and dissipating just above the area. He was sure this was Greenfeld.

  “Why are almost all the names South of here from old languages, but Greenfeld and the others you mentioned further north are just common words in modern Kasmali?” Sam asked Dr. Walt.

  “That’s a very good observation Sam. Very good indeed. And, of course, you are right that they seem to change as we go further north. I’m not sure myself why the naming conventions are different. Perhaps it was that the early survivors of the apocalypse were more religious and reverent in the South, using ancient names. Perhaps it was because the civilizations there were older even before the cataclysm and the names were carried through. It’s even possible that the reason is that there was one powerful person, or a small group of them, who obtained power early on and named the areas to their liking. I have not come upon anything in my research to indicate why.”

  The doctor turned his grizzled, shaggy head toward Sam. “It’s the little things like that, the little mysteries in life, that I live for. How did people think? How did they act? What were they like? These questions may be trivial, but often in history, supposedly trivial knowledge has led to important things. It’s the sheer excitement of finding, knowing, and applying what we find. That is why, in a sense, finding myself stranded here was a dream come true. But enough about me. Let’s head to Greenfeld so you can see another thriving trade town.”

  The party was slow in getting started again, lingering on the hill and enjoying the beautiful vista laid out before them. Sam felt comfortable here, as he had never felt comfortable before. He felt as if he belonged here. It was strange and more than a little disconcerting that it would be so for an area in a world separate from his own. He wondered if he would feel the same at this very location in his own world.

  “You feel it,” Rindu said. It was not a question.

  Shaking his head, emerging from his reverie, Sam t
urned to see that the Zouy was standing right next to him. He hadn’t heard the monk approach, again. “Pardon me?”

  “You feel it,” Rindu repeated.

  “Feel what, exactly?”

  “The energy. The balance. The peace and comfort. You feel the peculiar calmness of the rohw in this area. Is this not true?”

  Sam paused before answering. He did feel something. Wasn’t he just thinking about it, thinking that this felt like it should be his home? “I feel something, like I belong here.”

  “Perhaps you do, Sam. Perhaps you do. I have spoken to Dr. Walt and asked for a half an hour before we go to the town. I would like you to meditate here with me, explore the unique energy signature of this place. It may be…enlightening.”

  The two sat down with their legs crossed in front of them, as always, knees almost touching. Rindu said softly, “I would like you to empty your mind and allow the energy to simply do what it will. Allow yourself to enter the khulim and then experience whatever it is that the rohw has in store for you.”

  Sam opened one eye, having closed both as he started controlling his breathing. “You sound like you’re saying the rohw is alive.”

  “The rohw is the very thing that makes us, and all else, alive. It is not alive in the sense that it moves around with a particular purpose or that it decides to do something and then does it, but the rohw is life, Sam. A master attempts to understand it as husband does his wife. If he understands her and acts according to her disposition, then his life is happy because his wife is happy. If, on the other hand, the man does whatever he wishes, not taking into account the desires of his wife, then his life will be…unbalanced.”