Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2)

by Gary Stringer

  Even Catriona sometimes encountered casual racism relating to her Faery heritage. Daelen couldn’t believe a Tavern called ‘FaerWay,’ with that terrible sign, was still allowed to exist. Since Catriona was half-human, her Faery spots were faint, so it wouldn’t be difficult for Cat to hide her heritage, but instead, she insisted everybody knew. Her perception filter worked differently: it helped her to create the perception that such prejudice didn’t upset her, when, in fact, it most assuredly did.

  Daelen still felt guilty about the racist remarks his own dark clone had made to Cat. He hoped that was something ‘Aden’ had picked up on his own, and not something that had come from the original Daelen StormTiger before the split. He wouldn’t like to think he used to be like that. More importantly, now that the two halves were if not exactly recombined, then certainly co-existing, he hoped that didn’t mean that such attitudes were a part of him now.

  In fact, if you think about it, gentle reader, wasn’t he using a perception filter of his own all the time? As he had confirmed to Catriona, this body wasn’t really him. It was a shell. He had described his true nature as ‘light in a box’ and while it was true that it was physically impossible for his whole self to fit inside the mortal realm – impossible without ripping it apart, anyway – he could have easily chosen a form that at least approximated what he truly looked like. Instead, he had chosen the appearance of a human male. He wasn’t sure what that said about him. What he did know was that even looking the way he did, it was difficult for many Tempestrians to trust a higher planar being. If he appeared as ‘light in a box,’ he couldn’t imagine that making the situation any easier.

  Returning his attention to Sara and Jessica, he took in the good-natured banter between the two sisters. Jessica was still not letting go of the fact that Sara had snogged someone at that party a couple of weekends ago. There was an extra spring in their steps, and their tails were perked right up – a sure sign of happiness in Chetsuans. What would happen when it was just the two of them, again? Would they still be happy here, or could they find a home on Tempestria? Would the people there be any more receptive to their true selves than the people of Earth? Or would they both have to wear a perception filter for the rest of their lives? OK, they could deactivate them when they were alone with Cat and Mandalee, and he was sure there would be other Tempestrians who would be equally accepting. How many, he couldn’t be sure, but whatever the number, was it enough?

  Daelen worried about these things now, more than ever, because he was hiding something from all four of his mortal friends. That was another kind of perception filter, in a way. He had created the perception that he had simply brought Mandalee and Cat here to train. In Catriona’s case, he had done the job too well and almost pushed her away. Hidden behind that perception filter was the truth: training was only part of it. He had hoped that the Time difference between Tempestria and Earth would give his four mortal friends the time to get to know each other. Bond.

  The camaraderie he was witnessing before him was already a vindication of that idea. These four didn’t see race, gender or place of origin as a barrier. To them, that diversity was like the strong force that held the material universe together. That was important because, in a couple of months, Earth time – a fortnight on Tempestria – Sara and Jessica were going to have to choose.

  You see, gentle reader, Daelen already knew in his mind how his Ultimate Final Battle with Kullos was going to go – even best-case scenario. In the end, it was going to be just the two of them, as it was always meant to be. Kullos was a shadow warrior, and that made him his responsibility and his alone. In case the Wish barrier was not entirely successful in containing the power, he could not risk his friends, nor let any other mortals be caught in the blast of Heaven’s Surrender. The only way he could see to ensure that, was to let StormClaw Island be their last battlefield. His ship, his crew, his friends, all would be safe across the water. Since StormClaw was hidden behind a perception filter, no-one else knew it existed. It was empty of all mortal life. No collateral damage…except his own house.

  All of his facilities in all of his seven worlds were connected via the portal system, and he was likely to pull power from them. That would be devastating to anyone living there, even fatal if the building fell down. At the very least, the portals would collapse forever. Obviously, Sara and Jessica could not be home at the time, but more than that, whichever world they were on when the moment came, that was where they would have to build the rest of their lives. Of the seven worlds, they clearly could never return to their own world, Phitonia, so that left six to choose from. Of those, at least three were unsuitable long term, leaving three more: Earth, Tempestria and Lavos, the world where dragons were being hunted down. He didn’t think they could ever be comfortable in a world with dragons, even if they weren’t a threat like they were on Phitonia.

  Trouble was, they’d never seen Tempestria. He knew Cat and Mandalee would provide the very best impression of that world – Tempestria couldn’t find better ambassadors than those two – but Daelen had no right to force the issue. The choice was Sara’s and Jessica’s alone. He wasn’t going to tell them yet, though. He was worried that that would put undue pressure on their building relationships. It would undoubtedly affect things. How could it not?

  Daelen knew the Chetsuan girls had made sort-of-friends on Earth and if he gave them the choice too soon, he was pretty sure that was the world they would choose. As I said, gentle reader, he couldn’t be sure whether they would need their perception filters any less on Tempestria, but at the very least they would have two friends who knew and accepted them for who they really were. He wanted them to consider that. In fact, what he was really hoping, was that Mandalee and Cat might invite their Chetsuan friends before the moment of the choice arrived. That way, it would be seen as an act of pure friendship, untainted by any sense of charity.

  The timing was unfortunate because he didn’t want Sara and Jessica involved in any fighting. Trained though they were, there was too great a risk of something happening to one of them for a cause, a world, and a fight that was not theirs. Moreover, he knew that if either one of them were to die, the other would not survive – she would make sure of it. He had taken them from their world so they could live, not so they could die.

  The other aspect of the battle he was concealing was that, as far as he could see, there was no possible way he could survive. His dark clone had believed otherwise. That was why he had proposed the merging, thinking the Wish barrier would protect him. It wouldn’t. Daelen was convinced of that.

  That was OK. Daelen’s one regret was that he had no idea what had happened to his home plane of reality since he’d been cut off. Had the enemy continued her attacks? Had his people discovered a way to stop her? Or had she finally won and destroyed them all? He supposed he would never know.

  There in the library, Daelen unlocked a small, wooden box and surreptitiously hid a letter inside, before locking it again. The lock was on a timer, set to open on the day equivalent to when he was due to rendezvous with Michael and his team at that ancient temple in Northern Alloria. On that day, Sara and Jessica would receive an urgent message, telling them to come to the library immediately, open the box and read the letter. The letter that would change their lives. The letter that would give them three days, Earth time – less than one day on Tempestria – to choose a world and leave this house forever before it could be destroyed.

  According to the schedule, in terms of Tempestrian time, that would be the night before they launched their attack on Kullos and his forces. The beginning of the end. He had planned it that way so he would be able to take a few hours, just before the dawn, to take a walk by himself while the others were sleeping. To think, to wonder about the Chetsuans’ choice, and just to enjoy the simple pleasure of one last walk in the woods on Tempestria in this facsimile of a human body.

  No battles. No fighting. No interruptions.

  *****

  If you are thinki
ng back to the beginning of my writing, gentle reader, knowing about my Illegal Time Intervention, sending Aunt Mandalee to interrupt his walk and bring him to our time to help us fight our battles, you will appreciate the irony.

  *****

  “Ah, there you are,” Catriona remarked as if she had been waiting for hours. “Please take a seat, and I’ll try to explain some things.”

  “Is this to do with your staff?” Mandalee guessed as she and Daelen sat down. Seeing Daelen’s ‘how did you know that’ expression, she told him, “She gets a certain look in her eyes when it’s to do with her staff.”

  “Yes, well, that look is part of what I want to explain,” Cat replied, with a slightly embarrassed expression. “The straight answer to your question, Mandalee, is ‘Yes and No.’”

  “That’s a straight answer?” Sara piped up.

  “It is for her,” Mandalee confirmed.

  “Must have a different definition on your world, I guess,” Jessica shrugged.

  “If you’ll be quiet for a moment,” the druidess huffed with mock irritation, “I was about to explain.”

  “Well, pardon me for breathing, I’m sure,” Sara remarked indignantly.

  “Bit touchy about this staff of hers, isn’t she?” Jessica offered.

  “Ooh!” Mandalee cried, “I’ve just thought: have I told you guys about the day I met our Cat, stuck in my demon trap, and naked with nothing but a strategically placed staff?”

  “No, and now you have to tell us,” Sara insisted.

  Jessica nodded enthusiastically. “Leaving out no detail, no matter how small.”

  “Well, it was pretty cold that day, so there was one detail that was quite small, wasn’t there, Cat?”

  Cat flushed a bit more and agreed, “Just as well – made it easier to cover with my staff.”

  The others were not following this at all; Mandalee promised to explain later.

  In the meantime, Catriona continued with what she wanted to say.

  “You’ve probably gathered that I’m linked with my staff, right?” Her friends nodded. “Well, more correctly, I am linked to the power within the staff. An important distinction because I’m beginning to understand that the staff itself is really quite irrelevant. It’s a tool, a vessel, nothing more. Anyway, whenever I learn something significant, something that brings me a step closer to understanding this power, I get a sympathic jolt. It’s, erm—” She tried to find a way to describe it other than the one she had in mind, but couldn’t, so blushing deeply, she confessed, “It’s, well, it’s kind of like sex, as a matter of fact.”

  “They have devices like that in this world,” Jessica quipped. “I could get you one if you’d like.”

  “Jessica!” Sara exclaimed, genuinely shocked.

  “What?” her sister retorted, unperturbed. “It’s alright for you, sis; we don’t all have elf boys we can snog. Some of us have to make do.”

  Seeing that Catriona wasn’t offended by her sister’s remarks, the slightly more reticent Sara was emboldened enough to join in. “Yeah, but you know what Catriona’s like. Think about it: synthetic materials you-know-where.” She winced. “Could be nasty.”

  “Blimey, you’re right,” Jessica’s eyes widened. “Never thought of that. Sorry, Cat. Better stick with your staff.”

  “Anyway, moving on from that,” a bright red Daelen encouraged an only slightly less flushed Catriona.

  “Yes, well, this -er- stimulus, is important because most of what I learn is buried deep within magical texts. Most, but not all. Sometimes I find solutions in non-magic-related books.”

  “Like you figured out your Mirror Image spell from reading about photography,” Mandalee offered by way of example.

  “Exactly,” Cat agreed. “Also, remember this power has something to do with Time. Not the Time travel you know, Daelen, but something new…and yet at the same time, far older. Perhaps as old as the world – my world. Perhaps even older, I don’t know yet. So, sometimes it uses events it must know will happen. Maybe it even shapes those events, but whatever the details, it stimulates me in this way to bring about its, erm…” she hesitated before saying the next word, guessing Jessica and Sara’s reactions. “…release,” she finished.

  The two Chetsuans screamed with laughter.

  “I can’t—” Sara gasped, “—I can’t breathe!”

  “Didn’t seem to need to come up for air when you were snogging that elf boy for hours,” Jessica quipped.

  Mandalee, knowing her friend was trying to make a serious point, was making a supreme effort to control herself, but Cat could see the tears of laughter forming in the corners of her eyes.

  “So, why, erm,” she began, faltering and then trying again. “Why bring this up now?”

  “Because when Daelen described you in that particular way, it felt…” the druidess blushed again “…well, it felt pretty good, actually, and I don’t think it was just the sound of your sexy voice, Daelen. It’s telling me to find a reference to that phrase. That’s why I brought everyone in here.

  “I’ve searched through everything I’ve already got, and so far, nothing. There’s something here in this library, I’m sure of it, but somehow it’s eluding my usual locator magic.”

  “Why would it do that?” Daelen wondered, scowling at the two Chetsuans. They were trying hard to calm down, but just as one settled, a giggle would escape the other’s mouth and set her sister off again. “If this ‘assassin peacemaker’ reference is significant, why would it obstruct your ability to find it?”

  “My guess is that sometimes it’s not just about finding the information,” she seemed to wince, slightly, “but how I find it.”

  This prompted Sara and Jessica to sing a chorus of a song called ‘It Ain’t What You Do, It’s the Way That You Do It’ followed by an equivalent of a high five with their tails.

  “Before we turn your entire library upside down, Daelen, can you think of anything?”

  “Seems reasonable,” Mandalee told Daelen. “I mean, it was you who said, ‘assassin peacemaker,’ so maybe it’s a reference to something you’ve seen before.”

  “Hey guys,” Cat called out, looking distinctly uncomfortable. Everyone turned to look at the druidess, her eyes slightly glazed. “Could we avoid saying the actual phrase from now on, please?”

  Mandalee suddenly realised that the reason her friend was so flushed wasn’t just from embarrassment but from the repeated…stimulus.

  “You mean, every time one of us says it…”

  Cat nodded.

  Mandalee and Daelen apologised, while the Chetsuans went with, “Blimey!”

  Daelen had a thought, just then. He couldn’t quite isolate it; it was just a vague impression that they were looking in the wrong place.

  “Have you tried fiction?”

  Cat frowned. “No, why would I?”

  “Just an idea,” he replied with a shrug. “It feels right. As if it’s something I read once, long ago.”

  “Any chance of narrowing it down?” Mandalee prompted.

  “Actually, we can probably narrow it down with some common sense,” Sara suggested. “Daelen said assa—” she caught herself, “—I mean, he used that phrase with reference to you, Mandalee, so I would guess that the kind of character we’re looking for is a bit like you.”

  Jessica took up the thread.

  “Good thinking, sis. So, the question is, what category would this world put your story in?”

  “Fantasy? Sci-Fi?” Sara suggested.

  “Action adventure,” Daelen insisted. “I’m sure of it. That’s where we need to look.”

  “Well done guys,” Cat commended them. “I knew we’d get there if we worked together.”

  The two Chetsuans, knowing the library better than anyone, even Daelen himself, ran over to the relevant section of shelves and began searching through the titles, starting at each end and working their way through so they’d meet in the middle.

  A few moments later, Sara called out
, “Found it!”

  Working backwards from Z, what she had found was the end of a series of books, under the umbrella title:

  ‘Melanda: Assassin’ written by ‘Rose Storm.’

  Despite their age, they were perfectly preserved, as if untouched by the passage of time.

  This final instalment was entitled: The Assassin Peacemaker and according to the back cover:

  Tired of the infighting, the Assassin has turned Peacemaker. Recent events forced the two gangs to work together, but now that threat has ended, they look set to return to their old ways. Elisabeth Melanda is determined that will not happen. The Red Cats and the Twin Tigers must fully unite before everything is lost. To do that, the Assassin Peacemaker finds she must go back to the beginning, to where this all started, in Training School.

  “Training School,” Jessica echoed. “That’s the title of the first novel in the series.”

  So saying, she pulled it off the shelf. She also pointed out to her sister that she’d just used the forbidden phrase twice.

  Realising she was right, Sara gasped an apology to Cat.

  “It’s OK,” she replied. “Nothing happened, which means you’ve found it.”

  The Chetsuans brought the two novels over to where the druidess was sitting.

  “Rose Storm,” Daelen remarked with misty eyes. “That was the name she used. I should have remembered.”

  He reminded Catriona that he’d once had a mortal lover from Tempestria, named Rose. They lived there in his house on Earth for a time, and one of the things she liked to do was write fiction. She enjoyed the creative process of putting words in ink onto paper. She wrote a lot, and it had been so long ago that he couldn’t remember all the titles.

  Mandalee told Daelen she recognised the surname ‘Storm’ from his credit card – she’d seen it often enough while she was shopping. Come to think of it, she hadn’t worn half her new stuff, but they were going to be here for more than two weeks, yet, so she guessed she’d have time.