Misfit Mage

by Michael Taggart

  That last kick actually picked me up off the ground.

  I huddled in a ball whimpering. Trying to protect myself. I couldn’t believe this was happening.

  “That cost me dearly to get. It was loaned to me. Do you know what it will cost me if I don’t return it?”

  She kicked me again. I felt something snap.

  “You had to be a stupid little House boy and muck it up, didn’t you? You stupid, stupid, thing.”

  She stomped me, then kicked me again.

  “Here is what you will do. You will get me the golem back. I don’t know where you hid it or what you did with it, but you will get it back.”

  She stomped me, and I felt something else snap.

  “Then you will serve me, to pay me back for all vexation you have caused. After you serve me, I will eat you. This is your life. What is left of it,”

  I still had my magic sight up, so I saw the stone that smacked into Isobel and sent her flying. It sounded like she had been shot, but she rolled to her feet, surrounded by a thick shield. She favored her left side a bit, but otherwise she looked ticked off and ready to fight.

  Another thick stone smacked into her shield. It flew so fast, it looked like it had been launched out of a canon. I heard a boom when it hit, and her shield cracked, then shattered.

  She cast another one just in time as a third stone hit. She yelled something at the golem and it turned to fight. At that moment John dashed into my mage sight.

  The golem took a swing at him but was way too slow for John. John might be a big guy but he moved like a dancer. He was fluid, fast, precise.

  Isobel shot spells at him but he ducked behind the golem. The golem swung at him but was too slow to touch him. Instead, John was reaching into the golem and pulling out thick rocks. He’d hurl them at Isobel between her spells and fracture her shields.

  It was two on one but neither opponent could get an upper hand. Isobel was running through a lot of magic. She couldn’t keep this up forever. John couldn’t dodge forever either. Someone was going to make a mistake.

  Isobel blundered first and hit her own golem. It shrugged it off, but for a long moment it was motionless. John wrapped both hands around an arm and I saw his magic cover the limb. A moment later, the arm had been fused into one solid piece of rock.

  With a grunt, John wrenched the entire arm off the golem. The strength to do that was just insane.

  Isobel screamed in anger, her second golem was getting wrecked! John plucked out two rocks in either hand and hurled. When she ducked behind her shield, he grabbed the solid golem arm and ran at her.

  She had enough time to throw one spell, and miss, before John was on her. He swung the rock arm through the air like a sledgehammer and smashed her shield.

  She threw up another one and really poured her power into it. This shield was much thicker and glowed with energy.

  Undeterred, John swung the massive arm again and again and again. He laid into it with a fury, trying to chop his way through.

  The shield shivered and shook but managed to hold. Isobel had her feet braced, both arms extended, pouring massive amounts of magic into it.

  John was winning, though. Isobel was sinking to the ground and the shield was barely covering the top of her. John stepped in close, almost on top of her, and really hammered her.

  Suddenly, Isobel extended the shield under John’s feet. With a shout, she lifted the mountain man into the air and flipped him behind her. There was now nothing between her and the one-armed golem.

  She dropped her shield and sprinted toward her leggy throne. She vaulted into the seat, threw up another shield and barked a command. With deep booming steps the golem started running away. It ran out of my range, with a furious John chasing after.

  I laid on the ground feeling shattered. I felt the numbness and the feeling of wrongness that comes from broken bones. I was afraid to move. I didn’t even know if I could move. I was afraid to stay here, though. This was a battlefield and I was helpless to anyone that came by.

  It seemed like forever before someone came into view. It was Annabeth, finally free from the spell. She hauled me to my feet and forced me to get moving. It wasn’t a run. It was a shambled walk at best, but we were moving toward safety. Every step was agony, but I didn’t dare stop.

  We made it across the House boundary and I gratefully sank down onto the ground. Safe at last, I passed out.

  17 Recovery

  -- Hour 3 --

  I was in a burning house and I was on fire. Not the nice on-fire version, where you are just a bit crispy. I’m taking on fire, on fire. I kept running through the burning house, but there wasn’t an exit. The fire ate into my flesh. Burning me to the bones and burning them too. I was a running screaming fiery skeleton, but I couldn’t die and I couldn’t get out. The floor burned out from under me and I fell through. The next floor was on fire too. I looked around in despair. This could not be right.

  It was so wrong I woke up.

  I felt relief. It was just a nightmare. It would be morning soon and I would be ok. Tyler would be there with his strong arms again. Bermuda would be napping on the pillow. The sunlight would start shining and my perfect morning would be complete.

  I went to open my eyes but they wouldn’t open. In fact they felt like they weren’t there. Instead, it felt like the fire was still burning my face. I heard voices. I took in a breath cry, and fire filled my lungs. My cracked ribs creaked and rubbed against each other. The intense pain took my breath away.

  I didn’t cry out. I just whimpered.

  “Easy there,” John’s bass voice said soothingly. “We are just working on bandaging you up.”

  I tried to ask what happened to my eyes, but my jaw wouldn’t move. No words came out. Maybe my dream was real.

  Everything hurt. It hurt on a level I hadn’t experienced before. When I’d had my death experience I’d ended up in some sort of cocoon with the smell of Lavender. Recovery had been long, and it had certainly been painful then, but it hadn’t been this fresh. This immediate. This overpowering.

  I went to feel my face and my left arm exploded in agony.

  “Try not to move yet,” Sandy said. “Wait until we get you bandaged and splinted.”

  Every breath was agony. Every movement that happened caused pain to flare up in a new spot.

  They cut away my clothes. They were covered in blood and removing them normally in my condition was out of the question. My face was already wrapped in bandages, and they wrapped my ribs too. Sandy levitated me so John could wrap all the way around me. My left forearm was broken so they splinted and wrapped that too.

  Sandy did a scan with a charm. She said the bones in my face were shattered. That included nose, forehead, cheekbones, and jaw. I had three broken ribs on the right and two on the left. Both of the bones in my left forearm was shattered. I had internal bleeding and more tissue damage than she wanted to list.

  Sandy was trying to be clinical and detached, just sticking with the facts. Her voice caught, though, and she almost started crying. She said just knowing what was wrong would help my body start to heal itself.

  She put three healing charms on me. One around my neck. One in the bandages around my ribs. One she wrapped around me feet. I was on fire, and they felt like ice. Not a soothing cool feeling, but a harsh bitter biting cold.

  She said more things but I was too far gone to hear them.

  -- Hour 4 --

  I was awake. Fully awake. And I was in hell. Breathing was pure agony. So I took the smallest breaths possible. Moving was out of the question. Even the slightest movement caused a new cascade of pain. I would tense in agony, and that would cause even more areas to flare up. I tried to relax. To breath. And that was all.

  -- Hour 5 --

  You know those pain charts they have at the hospitals? The ones that show a pain level of one with a slightly unhappy face, all the way up to pain level ten. The ten face is red, looking very sad, with a tear running down its face. Ten
has nothing on me. Nothing. I’m so far beyond that I can’t even see it in the rearview mirror of my pain index. I wanted to cry and scream in agony.

  -- Hour 6 --

  The torment I was in was biblical in proportion. This had to be hell. Demons crawled through my body like maggots. Laughing hysterically and eating me alive. They feasted on my flesh. They swung on my bones. They poked me with red hot pokers and tore at me with pliers.

  I endured. That is all I could do. There was no alternative.

  -- Hour 10 --

  John was sitting with me and Annabeth came in to see him. I think she had slept after the fight and now she was catching up on what had happened. I listened in. There was nothing else to do and I desperately wanted something other than the pain to think about.

  Other than me, the fight had gone really well. Sandy is a battle mage and she had a lot of frustration and anger built up. Frustration at the challenges of being Head of Household. Especially when the other House heads were feeling jilted that she got the honor. They were not helping Sandy at all. Anger at the Jennifer situation and a good built of guilt too. She was ready for a good fight and the mages had given it to her.

  She’d gone through most of them like a hot knife through butter. The old lady with the pure black aura was powerful, but she didn’t seem to be there to really fight. John thought she was there to make sure the others didn’t get too hurt. She played defensively in John’s opinion.

  John fought off Isobel and the last he’d seen of her she had been in full retreat on her golem throne. John was very frustrated that he couldn’t get to me in time and he was glad that Annabeth had gotten free and got me to safety.

  Sandy had found Bermuda and had taken him to the vet.

  Bermuda!! I had completely forgotten him. I felt like such a heel. When Bermuda really needed me, I couldn’t be there for him.

  The vet had evaluated him and suggested it might be better to put him down. His care was going to cost a lot and he might not make a good recovery.

  WTF?! He’d only been in my life a few days but I couldn’t imagine losing him. He filled a part of me I hadn’t known was empty. He was the bravest and cutest creature I knew.

  Sandy had let the vet know in no uncertain terms what she thought of that suggestion. She would break every bone in his body before he harmed a hair on Bermuda.

  I wanted to cry. I couldn’t because my eyes were sealed shut, but I wanted to. I loved Sandy in that moment. Standing up for Bermuda for me. Whatever the vet bills were, I would pay. I would pay a hundred times over. Just bring Bermuda home safe.

  Apparently, she was so forceful the vet had turned the case over to another veterinarian. She was a lot more sympathetic to the situation and now Bermuda was in surgery. Sandy was staying there to make sure he got the best care and the staff was properly motivated.

  John left and Annabeth took over for a while. This was feeling like my death experience recovery, only a lot more painful. They had sat with me around the clock then, and they were doing it again.

  I have good friends. I’d felt alone for so long. But now I had friends that would sit with me in a boring room and make sure I was ok.

  -- Hour 11 --

  All that emotion had destroyed the little bit of rhythm I’d found to the pain and the breathing. I was slowly getting it back.

  I was so exhausted. It hurt too much to sleep. So I just existed in this world of ache. I think I had a fever too.

  I realized Annabeth was humming.

  -- Hour 13 --

  Annabeth’s humming had soothed me enough to get a tiny nap. Apparently I like to move when I’m sleeping. That wasn’t so good now.

  I woke up screaming, but that hurt way too much. I cut that off as soon as I could get control again.

  I breathed. Shallow, tiny breaths. Focus on the breath.

  -- Hour 20 --

  Annabeth had left. Tyler was there. He was still working on my remnants. Even in all this, he was still working on me. He told me he was really worried about them smoking out and attacking again in my weakened state. This was a good time for them to pounce, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not while he was there. He tried to tell me more but I couldn’t focus.

  My mind was a fog. My body was molten lava. I let it flow. And breathed.

  -- Hour 30 --

  I think I’m going crazy. The pain is overwhelming. And it doesn’t stop. It just flows on and on and on. No end in sight.

  I’ve raged that I can’t go to the hospital like a regular person.

  I’ve raged that meds don’t work for me anymore.

  I’ve raged that this happened at all. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask to get in a fight with a two-ton stone beast. Or a cesspool master mage.

  Now there is no rage left.

  I’ve despaired too.

  I’ve despaired of ever getting better. That this is some new dimension of torment that I’ll never escape.

  I’ve despaired that I will get better, but be forever deformed. I’ll be the Quasimodo of Louisville. Living life as a beggar and making children scream when they see me.

  Now there is no despair left.

  I feel empty.

  Broken.

  -- Hour 50 --

  Tyler left. Sandy sat with me for a while. Then John. Then Annabeth. Now we were back to Tyler again. Since I couldn’t talk, we were communicating via light hand squeezing. My right hand could move a bit without pain. They would hold my hand and ask a question. If yes then one squeeze. If no then two squeezes.

  There wasn’t much to say of course. I got a tiny bit of water. Didn’t want to do too much or I’d have to pee and that would really hurt right now. Otherwise, don’t move me.

  Tyler started talking again and this time I listened. He asked me if I could hear and understand him.

  Squeeze.

  “Jason, I hope you are finding your balance in this situation. This whole thing sucks. And you are so new to being a supernatural.”

  What did I say to this? Was I finding my balance? I wasn’t sure what that meant. I just left it alone. No answer.

  “I do want you to know that I’ve been through this. I’ve been through this for longer than you could possibly imagine.”

  I really doubt that. This is so intense.

  “Imagine getting better, then this happening again. Then getting better, then happening again. Imagine it happening over and over again for ten years. That’s what I went through after my Waker Moment. There was no one to help me or bandage me up or even tell me what was going on. I had to endure and eventually learn on my own.”

  Ok. I take it back. That is way worse than what was happening to me. I knew on some level that no matter how bad it was now, it would get better. I thought this was a nightmare.

  The picture he was painting was a never-ending horror.

  Squeeze.

  “Because I’ve been through this, I’m in a unique position to offer you some advice. Can you listen and understand me? Are you ready to hear me?”

  Was I? For the first time I’d realized it could be worse. Tyler seemed like a good guy. The House relied on him and he seemed to be a force for good in the world. If he had come through this and found a way to survive, even thrive, I wanted to hear it.

  Squeeze.

  “Let’s talk about two things. The first is finding balance. You are going to be in a lot of different situations in your life. Some of them good and happy and wonderful in every way. Some of them will be awful and you will wonder how you will survive. If you live in any situation for long enough there will be an element of normalcy start to creep in. No matter how good, or how bad, it will start to feel normal. I call this finding your balance. Are you still with me?”

  Squeeze.

  “When you find your balance, when you find the normalcy in the situation, then you can start making decisions about what you are going through. You can start thinking about options. You can strategize and find a way to go in the way you want to.


  “Through no choice of my own, I ended up in a horrible starting situation after my Waker Moment. It broke me for a long time. I wanted to die, but I couldn’t. I thought I would be in this situation forever.

  “One day, though, I realized it wasn’t as bad as before. It had started to seem normal now. The more normal it got, the more I started thinking about how I could get better. I tried a lot of things, most of them failed, but some of them didn’t. It took years, but I had nothing but time. I figured out how to master my power and become a much better supernatural.”

  “I used this power to escape. I found the House and it kept me safe. Now I have a good life of my own. I still practice every day with my power and I still look for more ways to use it. So, lesson number one: find your balance. Understand?”

  I think I did understand. I wasn’t open to this hours ago. People were talking but I couldn’t hear them.

  I was still in pain that made me want to scream over and over again. Somehow, though, I could think now. Maybe this was just a little bit normal. Maybe I was finding my balance.

  Squeeze.

  “Lesson two: don’t heal. Transform.”

  Ok, that wasn’t cryptic at all.

  “You probably have an idea of what healing is. It’s something that happens over time. The body gradually generates new cells and goes through healing stages. For example, a cut. First your body bleeds to clean the wound. Then it scabs over to provide protection and a safe place to regrow. Regrowth happens and finally the scab itches and falls off. Then you have a scar that gradually fades over time.

  “Next example, a broken bone. First you align the break so it can heal right. Then you immobilize the bone so it can heal without rebreaking. Finally it heals but it usually isn’t perfect. Maybe you have phantom pains every now and then, or it aches when the weather changes. All of this sound familiar?”

  Oh yes it did. That’s why I thought I might look like Quasimodo at the end of all this.

  Squeeze.

  “Now let’s talk transformation. Did you ever see any of the Terminator movies where the robot of the future is made of liquid metal?”

  “Terminator 2” was one of my favorite movies. It was old, but still a classic.