“Sure, Master. Normally I would not, but since it is Spectra, and the need is dire, I will,” she said.
“Normally you would not?” I asked.
“Master, I am not welcome in the Spirit Realm. It is best for me to stay out of it, unless there is a real need like there is now,” she said.
I wanted to hear more about that, but before I could Spectra said, “Master, please don’t ask this of me.”
She looked genuinely scared. Nothing could have worried me more at that moment than seeing Spectra so distraught. “What is wrong?”
“Master, Spectra says there are two things that affect the strength of the influence the gems exert on someone. The first is purely exposure time: the longer you are near it, the more influence it has. The second is how powerful a connection you have to the Spirit Realm. Spectra is not sure she can resist it,” said Dusty.
“It wants you dead, Shadow. What if it tries to make me attack you like it did with Kymberly?” asked Spectra.
Something in her voice told me she was worried she might not be able to resist the box. “Can you stay in the Spirit Realm? Open the gate, let Shea through, and then close it?”
“I think so, Master,” she said.
“That is what we will do. There is no need to put you through that ordeal, though I think you would be fine. If there are no objections, I would like to do this right now. I do not like the idea of leaving that thing on my ship any longer than need be,” I said.
Shea indicated that she was ready, and I asked Spectra to open the gate to the Spirit Realm.
Chapter Sixty-Three
Spectra cast her gate spell, and Dusty, Shea, and I followed her through to the Spirit Realm. I had not been there before, and was sure that it was not a place I would visit again without good reason. It was like walking into every child’s worst nightmare at once.
Spectra and Dusty looked perfectly comfortable here, and there was something more. With my weave sense I could see the power flowing around, and it was channeling into them. They were getting stronger the longer they stood here.
Shea was a completely different story. The natives of this realm obviously feared and despised her. She glowed with pure white light that seemed to protect her from their attacks, but I understood now why she wanted to rush through.
“Now, I am going to weavewalk back and set up the marker for you. Let’s make this fast,” I said.
Spectra was already at least twice as powerful as she had been when we arrived, and growing more so. “Yes, Master. I will need to close the gate as fast as I can to prevent the crate from reaching out and tapping the power here.”
I nodded and weavewalked back to the conference room on the Nevermore II. Once there I weaved the marker, and before I could finish it a gate opened and Shea came running through. The gate was quickly closed, leaving Shea and myself alone in the conference room.
“Well, that seemed to work,” I said.
“Yes, Master. I am glad to be back in the physical world,” said Shea.
“Flame, I am back, and I brought Shea. Please bring Kymberly to the conference room,” I sent and said, “Do you need anything?”
“No, Master, just a moment to catch my breath. It got fairly heated back there for me,” she said.
“Hey, that’s great! Be right there!” Flame sent.
“I saw the creatures attacking you,” I said.
“Yes, Master. In a way, I am their natural enemy,” she said.
“Interesting. Would that make you Spectra’s enemy also?” I asked.
“Oh, in a way, Master, but not in practice. She is a good friend, and I trust her completely,” she said.
“Do you think she could have resisted the crate?” I asked.
“Yes, Master. She is far more powerful than she lets on,” said Shea.
Her answers created so many questions that I wanted to ask, but just then Flame and Kymberly walked in. “Hey, Shadow! Hi, Shea!” said Flame.
After proper greetings were exchanged Shea said, “Master, I can feel the box. It is not happy. We should deal with it now before something happens.”
That was not good. That meant it could penetrate the shielding on the training rooms. “Let us go,” I said. As we walked, Kymberly told Shea everything she knew about the box.
When we neared the training rooms, Kymberly said, “Master, may I return to my quarters now?”
“Master, I recommend she stays. She needs to face this fear head-on, or forever be haunted by it,” said Shea.
“Sorry, Kymberly. Doctor’s orders: you stay,” I said.
“Yes, Master,” she said.
“Flame, be ready, just in case,” I sent.
“Of course,” she sent.
The Dark Knights were standing stoically at their position as we approached. “Knights, Shea is here to take care of our package. Ready your minds; the box will try to make you help it. I will need you to protect us from a rear assault in case it reaches out to the crew.”
“Yes, Master,” they said.
I was never more grateful to have them on my ship than at that moment. Their discipline and training would make them more than a match for the controlling power of the box. “Are you ready, Shea?”
“No, but it isn’t up to me, so open the door,” she said.
Even now, when she was about to face the most powerful force of evil we had ever encountered, she was calm and untroubled. I envied her courage and strength.
“Here we go,” I said as I unlocked the room and slipped us in through the shields. At first, when we walked in, everything was calm and normal. Suddenly everything around us changed. The energy in the room was violent and angry. I could see streaks of power flying everywhere. The box was fighting hard against the magical chains that I had put on it, trying to get at me. Flame screamed in anger and threw a massive fireball at the box. I reached out and wove a shield around our position as raw malicious power flooded the room.
Kymberly was clutching her staff and straining not to move. Shea looked at Kymberly and said gently, “You can beat this. Just focus on who you are and whom you represent.”
“Shea, finish this,” I said.
“Yes, Master,” she said.
I watched her walk over to the box. As she approached it, it tried to pull away from her. She passed through my shields, but no matter how hard the energy in the room attacked, she seemed immune to it. It became apparent that the box greatly feared her, as it was no longer trying to get free to attack me, but instead it was fleeing from her. Shea raised her hands in the air and began to sing. I had heard her sing before, usually while she worked, but it was always calm and cheerful. This song was different. I could not understand the words, but I could tell it was a victory song.
I could not fathom why she would sing such a song before she had even begun to fight, but she did. It was not calm and gentle like her normal voice; instead, her words echoed through the room, filling every nook and cranny. The power of that song drove us all to our knees. None of us could stand in the presence of such raw strength.
The room filled with the purest and brightest white light I had ever seen. It was bright enough to have burned the retinas out of our eyes, and yet it did not. It felt more like a warm blanket on a cool night under the stars, or a cool shower after a hard workout. It was somehow refreshing and comforting. For a moment I lost track of everything but that light; nothing else mattered.
As the light slowly faded away I saw Shea on her knees with her arms in the air and her face glowing with brilliant white light. Eventually even that faded and the room was once more the way it had been when we walked in, except that the crate was gone.
Shea said simply, “Master, it is done.”
Chapter Sixty-Four
None of us talked for a while. I dismissed the guards and told security to let the other Spiritualists out of their quarters. I kept a watch on Glimmer, for the present. Once that was done, I gathered e
veryone back in the conference room. We needed to discuss what had just happened. Once we had all settled in I asked, “Shea, what happened in there?”
“Master, I did very little, really,” she started.
“Very little? If that is what you call ‘very little’, I would hate to see you upset!” said Flame.
Shea smiled at that and blushed a little. “No, really. All I did was free the spirits that were trapped. They consumed the box and went on their way. Really, your fireball used more power than I did.”
“How?” I asked.
“Master, when you brought me here to this realm, I became the only representative of the Light, or so I thought. So, at that time, I dedicated myself to the following and became a cleric of Light,” she said.
“A cleric?” asked Kymberly.
“Yes. It’s like a priestess, but with a slightly different focus,” said Shea.
“I see. So what does that mean?” I asked.
“As a cleric, I am to build and promote Light, wherever I go, by being a living example,” she said.
“That you do wonderfully,” I said. “But that does not explain what just happened.”
“It does, Master. You see, as a cleric of Light, I am the natural enemy of the undead and anything unnatural. All I did in there was use my gifts to break the binding that trapped those poor spirits in those gems, and they did all the rest,” she said.
It seemed so amazing to talk about such a massive event in such dismissive terms. All she did was free enough power to destroy the entire sector, and she calls it nothing. Everyone thought I was the most powerful of the Dragon Guard, but I had to wonder how badly we had underestimated Shea? “Is that why you were attacked in the Spirit Realm?”
“Yes, Master. They recognize me and hate me,” she said.
“Why do they hate you?” asked Flame. “I can’t imagine anyone ever hating you!”
“Master, because those like me are the ones who banished them to that realm. If I came across an evil spirit here, I would unbind its connection to this world and it would be trapped in the Spirit Realm,” she said.
“Spectra tells me that that realm is filled with spirits banished from the physical realm over the eons. She says the Spirit Realm is the oldest of all the realms. Are you saying that people like you are the ones who banished them there?” I asked.
“Yes, Master,” she said. “At least, some of them. Others went for various reasons, but they all have one goal: that is, to get back to the physical realms, and they know it is people like me who will stop them.”
“What else can you do?” asked Flame.
“Master, I am not sure. Usually a cleric is an apprentice for a very long time; I am just making it up as I go,” she said.
“Shea, the amount of power in that room was beyond anything I could have imagined, and all you did was sing. That is amazing,” I said.
“Oh, Master, the singing was merely me giving thanks for my success,” she said. “I always try to make sure the source of my power gets all the credit. Without Light, I could do nothing.”
“Yes, but you sang it before you were successful,” I said.
“Master, I would praise the Light regardless of failure or success, but the Light had already told me I would succeed. As I mentioned, the power was not mine; it was the spirits being released and moving on to their final destination,” she said.
“Shadow, if this was anyone other than Shea, I would send him to Shea to get his head examined,” sent Flame privately.
“Shea, I do not know what to make of all this, but we must return you to the Shadow Fox; you have patients there who need you,” I said.
“Thank you,” she answered.
I weavewalked out of the conference room back to the Shadow Fox and found Spectra and Dusty waiting for me. “The crate has been destroyed, and Shea is ready to return.”
They both looked very relieved at that and, once again, we traveled to the Spirit Realm. Again I was struck by both the absolute horror of the place and the power that Dusty and Spectra seemed to draw from it. I knew they were both good people, so the fact that they drew strength from an accursed place like this was baffling. I would have to investigate the matter further once the Shadow Fox returned to us.
“Shadow, it is probably time you reported in,” sent Flame privately, upon my return to the Nevermore.
“Maybe, but I want to follow up the lead …” I started.
“Shadow, you know better than that,” she interrupted.
“Yes, you are right.” I sighed. I knew that the council wanted regular updates from me on this mission, and I had not yet sent one. I kept intending to, but had never got around to it. I suspect that was partly the reason Grandmaster Vydor had paid us that visit.
Chapter Sixty-Five
As I drifted down on a cloud of purple smoke into the room, I saw seated around my table Kellyn, Mathorn, Rannor, Bill, Shadow’s father, and Shadow. It had taken a few days to gather everyone for this briefing. Shadow and Mathorn were able to weavewalk directly here, but both Bill and Shadow’s father had to use more mundane means of travel.
“Greetings, Grandmaster,” came from several as I took my seat.
“Regal entrance, my love,” came a private message from Kellyn.
“Rannor, please start with a report on your findings regarding Phoenix and Dusty,” I said.
“Certainly, Grandmaster. Shea appears to have been completely correct about Phoenix. He never lost his powers; his body was just too weak to produce sufficient quantities of illuminescence. Now that he has recovered much of his health, he is nearing his full power again. I see no reason why he should not make a full recovery,” said Rannor.
“Headmaster, that is excellent news!” said Shadow. “Does this mean that all magi need to stay in a state of peak fitness?”
“Yes, and no. From what I can see, we need to remain healthy and in decent physical condition, but not abnormally so; just healthy enough for all our physical systems to work properly,” said Rannor.
“Does this mean that if my wizards get sick they might not be able to cast?” asked Doug.
“If they are sick enough, yes. It is also possible that a virus could at some point be discovered which would block their power,” said Rannor.
“That would be very bad, Headmaster. What about Dusty’s case?” asked Shadow.
“His case is much harder to understand. His DNA has changed, as we suspected, but not in any way that could explain his power changes. All I can say at this time is that both his powers and his DNA are different from what they were. Whether or not these changes are connected is mere conjecture at this point. Unfortunately, without more cases to compare, I doubt if I will be able to say more than that,” he said.
“What about Spectra, Headmaster? She was with him when this all happened,” asked Shadow.
“Yes, I thought of that, too, but her DNA is unchanged,” he said.
“Keep working on that, Rannor. I suspect you might yet find an answer. Now, Doug, do you have something to report from your operations?” I asked.
Doug reported on the operation to free the station and the trouble they had met there. He also mentioned the mysterious crate that had escaped them. He finished, “So we are just spreading our search nets wider, hoping to find some trace of where that crate got to.”
“I think I can answer that,” said Shadow. He picked up his tale from where Doug left off. It was a rather amazing story that climaxed with Shea becoming a hero. “So, Grandmaster, right now we are following a lead which should bring us to another table in a few months. We think the tables are a form of battery, and that these crates recharge them.”
“I can’t imagine how many poor people were killed by that box! I wonder how long it had been out there for,” said Kellyn.
“Ten thousand years, Master Kellyn, would be my guess,” said Mathorn.
“That would mean they were left by the original sorcerers?�
�� asked Shadow.
“Yes, based on everyone’s reports I think one possibility is that when the master sorcerers knew their time was up, they sent the crates out to collect life forces,” he said.
“For what purpose?” asked Bill.
“Once they have collected enough lives, they will be able to return to life themselves,” Mathorn said. “It would be as if they had never left. They could conceivably return at the peak of their power.”
“Then the growing shadow is the slow return to power of the master sorcerers of old?” I asked.
“Yes, and that means we must find the rest of those boxes and destroy them,” said Mathorn.
“What of the tables?” I asked.
“I suggest you stay on target and destroy them also. If nothing else, it will slow them down,” said Mathorn.
“Then we set the Battle Wizards to find more boxes, and the Dragon Guard to destroy tables,” said Kellyn.
“Master, so far only Shea has successfully destroyed one of these crates,” said Shadow.
“Shadow, I know the pattern of the box, as I have had to deal with them in my former realm. I can teach you to unweave them,” said Mathorn.
“What else can you tell us about the box?” I asked.
“Grandmaster, a few centuries ago, we had a group of sorcerers who discovered how to create these spirit traps and tried to use them to make themselves immortal. They scattered the gems around the realm where traders and merchants would find them. We still have not found them all, but their plan was that once each gem was full they could suck the life out of them slowly and become unbeatable,” he said.
“What did you do?” asked Shadow.
“They only managed to acquire a few gems, not enough to complete their plans, before we found and stopped them. We assumed that their plan might have worked, but no one has tried it since,” he said.
“What of this green-hooded magus?” asked Bill.
“If Mathorn is right, this is one of the master sorcerers of old, which could be very bad,” I said.
Resurgence of Ancient Darkness Page 22
