The Equilibrium of Magic

by Michael W. Layne

  “Now that you mention it,” Merrick said, “yes, exactly like Ohman did.”

  Another five minutes of agile jumping from stone to stone and they made it to water that looked to be no more than chest high for either of them.

  A minute later, Merrick stepped off the last rock and set foot on Annoon’s beach again, followed closely by Jonathan.

  In the stark daylight, the sandy beaches and surrounding blue waters were simply beautiful.

  They walked from the wet sand toward the tree line, and Merrick noticed the remnants of the fire he had built some six months ago were still there.

  He looked out above the tree line of the forest that encircled the island and saw the familiar peak of the volcano located at the heart of Annoon.

  He would never forget that place. He and Mona together had killed his brother, Eudroch, there, at the top of that volcano, and Merrick was in no hurry to ever stand at its peak again.

  With a sigh, Merrick made his way to the forest’s edge.

  “Time to get to work,” Merrick said as he placed his hands on one of the trees and began to chant the words that would shape the trunk into whatever form he desired.

  Since Jonathan was only human and unable to vocalize any of the creation tongue without the help of the cube and the Rune Corp equipment, he decided to help Merrick with his knowledge of boats and how they were constructed.

  With direction from Jonathan, Merrick created piece after piece and handed them to Jonathan. Soon the frame of a simple boat began to take shape.

  They worked through most of the night, allowing themselves only a couple hours of sleep when they began to tire. As the morning approached, Merrick and Jonathan had created what would pass in most circles for a well-built boat. Its construction had gone as smoothly as could be expected with only one strange event that occurred when Jonathan was asleep. Merrick had felt as if he were being watched at one point. When he looked up from his work, he saw what he could have sworn was Ohman’s ghost, dressed completely in white with both beard and complexion to match.

  After he blinked his eyes, the ghost was gone, and Merrick went back to work.

  By the time the island was starting to light up again, they were only in need of a sail, and Merrick peeled away pieces of bark from the various trees to create one for their vessel.

  “I know this is a bit late to be asking this,” Jonathan said, “but how do we know that Abred launched from this side of the island?”

  “The storyteller said that Abred took off from a beach,” Merrick said, “and as far as I know from the last time I was here, this is the only beach on the entire island. The rest of it’s surrounded by gigantic boulders. We leave from here and we let Araki’s winds take us where they will, and we’ll be starting our trip where Abred started his.”

  “And if we’re lucky, we’ll just run into the right forest?” Jonathan said. “That simple?”

  “Something like that, I hope,” Merrick answered as they slid the boat into the water and jumped in.

  True to their intention, the boat did not leak, nor did it flip over. They paddled out with the oars for the first few hundred yards and waited, ensuring there were no leaks that would need patching.

  As soon as they were convinced that their boat was sound, they hoisted its sail.

  A gentle breeze filled the patchwork material, causing it to billow as the small craft surged ahead, leaving the sacred island of Annoon behind as an increasingly smaller speck in the distance.

  As the winds took the boat, they began to slightly turn, and Merrick heard a dull echo of something in his head. He turned to look around, but saw nothing that might have been the source of the noise.

  Merrick looked at Jonathan, who was facing into the breeze and who seemed to be enjoying the way Araki gently stroked his cheeks.

  Merrick reached into the pocket of his battle suit and pulled out the small divinium sculpture that was shaped like a branch.

  As he held it in his hand, the divinium pulsed in perfect syncopation with the pounding in his head. The tiny piece of divinium, so expertly carved into the semblance of a branch, was trying to talk to him. It was chanting a single word. It felt like a creation name to Merrick, but it didn’t possess any of the tonal similarities to any of the dragon words he had ever heard. Instead, it felt...ancient as it pulsed through his head. He did not know from which, if any, dragon the word originated, but the more he heard and felt it, the more he understood with all of his heart that this was the creation name for Abred’s Forgotten Forest.

  Merrick began chanting the strange yet familiar word as their boat raced through the strange sea on its way to the Forgotten Forest.

  CHAPTER 69

  TERRADA RECOGNIZED Merrick’s familiar scent. It was special even among the Drayoom.

  She knew of Merrick’s quest and had broken her pact yet again with her siblings, allowing him access to the holy island of Annoon.

  Merrick believed that he was searching simply for the source of the Rune Corp divinium, but if he was successful in his quest, he would discover so much more. And Terrada suspected that he was not yet ready for what he might actually find. Despite her misgivings, the Earth Dragon also knew that there was a larger agenda in play, and that Merrick deserved a chance to prove to her that he was ready to play a part.

  He also deserved a chance to prove to Oodrosil that he was worthy of the stone’s secret.

  The one thing that disturbed and puzzled Terrada was the fact that Merrick had brought a human with him. Had Merrick not given a thought to what he was doing? It was rare enough for a Drayoom to touch the soil of Annoon, but it was even more so for a human to do so. Only one other of their kind had ever visited Annoon before, and that was only because of the sacred role that Mona was destined to play one day in the affairs of the dragons and in the fate of the world.

  Still, Terrada found that she was curious to learn what she could about Merrick’s human friend while he was here. Even more curious was the fact that the other dragons were acting the same way as well.

  Merrick seemed to think that Terrada and her siblings were being calm and were welcoming him back to their island, but their curiosity about the human was what had kept them at bay thus far.

  These strange and inferior creatures called humans, who had been on the planet for almost as long as the Drayoom, were also destined to play a part in the fate of the world. And the dragons wanted to learn more about the species any way they could, whether by observing how they reacted and responded to extreme weather on the planet’s surface or by analyzing a single specimen like this one as he made his way through their sacred world.

  CHAPTER 70

  WHEN CARA ARRIVED back at Rune Corp, the company was already buzzing with activity. Gus had been true to his word and kept everyone moving forward while Cara and Merrick had been gone. But Gus was not a businessman.

  He was a warrior.

  As such, he had diverted all resources to the special weapons division, and some of the other department heads were not happy about it. On the other hand, he had made significant advances on some of the divinium-based weapons that surprised and pleased even Bradley. Within seconds of arriving, Bradley hurried back down to his hole to test the improvements to his weapons and to carry out Cara’s orders of arming the employees.

  Master Banzo immediately joined Gus to help him ramp up the Alphas and to focus on preparing the employees for an eventual invasion.

  Even though there was no proof that the Emperor’s forces were imminent, Cara wanted the building on high alert and secure as soon as possible. That meant fortifying the wards, which she would handle with the security division, briefing the employees, and operationalizing as many of the new divinium weapons as possible, despite their shortage of the magical material.

  As she walked through the foyer and nodded to Oodrosil, Cara tapped on her ear and opened up a general announcement frequency that would go out to all of Rune Corp.

  “Attention, everyone,” she
said. “There is a small but very real possibility that our building will be under siege by forces from the Wind Family in the near future. I know that not many of you are familiar with this group of Drayoom or their capabilities, but it is critical that you remain inside the building and do not try to leave without explicit orders from me.

  “At the first hint of any real danger, we will physically lock down this location, and once we do, no one will be able to leave.

  “I know that the majority of you are not trained warriors, but we have to assume the worst case scenario of a building breach. I need each and every one of you to be ready. Members of the Alphas will be coming to each floor and organizing you for battle stations. More information to come as soon as I know about it. And...thank you. Merrick’s working to bring us more divinium, but until then, we are on our own. That’s all for now.”

  Cara stepped into the elevator and took it to the top floor.

  As she walked down the hallway to her office door, she stopped where the mighty yew tree’s branches were near enough that they almost touched the glass wall that lined the walkway.

  She reached out and touched the branches and smiled.

  “It’s good to see you again, old friend,” she said. “We’re going to need your help if anything happens. Our building is solid, and we’re doing all we can to make it even stronger. Can I count on you as my father counted on you for so many years, to be our first layer of defense?”

  Cara did not hear anything from Oodrosil as much as she felt the tree’s response. The yew would organize the trees, the boulders, and the very earth itself outside the Rune Corp building. Anything that would be able to make its way through Oodrosil’s front line would have to be on the level of a catastrophic force of nature, which was, of course, exactly what Cara feared the most.

  She had seen the kind of power the Wind Family could unleash. Terrada was a powerful dragon, but she was slow and plodding, affecting the world in terms of decades, centuries, and eons. But Araki and her people...they were quick, agile, and even though they too could work across the millennia to accomplish things like carving valleys out of mountains, they were also capable of striking in the moment with deadly force.

  Cara removed her hand from Oodrosil and continued on to her office. She tapped her ear again and summoned the heads of all the departments to the executive conference room for an immediate war briefing.

  Before entering her office, Cara greeted Betty and asked that she wait for her in the conference room. Cara settled quickly into the chair behind her desk, brought up her terminal and logged in with her voice. Hers was a prototype hybrid of the latest human operating system that was powered by divinium chips placed onto the machine’s motherboard itself.

  The combination worked better than expected, even though they hadn’t yet ironed out the interface required for humans to use it. Being half Drayoom, the divinium and the human technology of the computer quickly and seamlessly responded to Cara’s commands.

  Cara immediately brought up the app that allowed her to control the building’s physical security. Only three people were authorized to access this part of the system. She, Merrick, and Master Banzo were the only ones who could activate the building’s bomb-proof encasement routine. It wasn’t yet time for this measure, but she wanted to be ready, just in case. Leaving the program open on her desktop, she locked her machine and moved over to the executive conference room, which was already filled with her management team.

  As soon as she entered the room, the chatter died down, and all eyes were on her.

  “What kind of potential attack are we talking about?” said Sandy, one of the company’s top analysts.

  Cara held up her hand and took a seat at the head the table. The spot next to her that Merrick would normally have filled was empty, and it made Cara feel...alone. Again, she was surprised by the feelings that showed themselves whenever she thought about him. Not even a year ago, Rune Corp and her life were just fine without Merrick. But after such a short time, he had become essential to the company and to Cara herself.

  Cara cleared her head and refocused on the task at hand.

  “I wasn’t lying a few minutes ago in my general address to the company,” Cara said. “We really don’t know whether or not there is an immediate danger from the Emperor and his kingdom. However, you all know Jonathan, and I respect his advice. He believes that the Emperor is not past taking actions as bold as attacking Rune Corp directly.”

  “Why would he want to attack us? What does he hope to gain?” John, the head of the security department, said.

  “We believe he will try to take our divinium and the technology that allows humans to use the cubes. His family, just like the others, has its own divinium, of course. But we’ve recently confirmed that our divinium is very different from the kind employed by the four families. It’s much more powerful and can hold multiple languages. Unfortunately, the Emperor has also discovered this fact, and Jonathan believes that it is likely he will opt for stealing our divinium versus trying to find his own.

  “One thing I did not state in my general announcement is that we ourselves do not know the source of our divinium.”

  The department heads looked collectively surprised at this news and started to talk amongst themselves.

  “Please remain quiet,” Cara said, as the table turned silent once again. “It is too much to go into now, but please know that Merrick is searching for the source that my father, Ohman, used to supply us with our divinium when he was alive. You know Merrick as well as I do, and you know that he will not stop until he has found what we need. In the meantime, we work with what we have.”

  Cara sat forward in her chair and placed her hands palm-down on the table.

  “Let me quickly explain what’s happened while we’ve been gone. After that, we need to make sure you and your people know their roles. We’ve drilled for this in the past, but this could be the real deal. The effectiveness and the safety of your people will be up to each of you. Am I clear?”

  There were nods all around the table. Despite the potential dangers of what might be coming their way, they were all ready to do their best, and she was proud to work with such a fine and versatile crew. Each of her employees had been chosen through a rigorous application process that selected for magical capability and intuition, initiative, intelligence, and loyalty. She would challenge any other high tech company in the area to have their people sling code one minute and in the next, defend against an invasion of any kind.

  Over the next fifteen minutes, Cara hit the high points of the last week, focusing on how Merrick had recaptured the divinium cube and then met them all at the Earth City. She assured everyone that both Merrick and Mona were fine.

  A few of the department heads fidgeted nervously when they heard that Merrick wouldn’t be with them if something went down in the next few days. Once again, Cara was amazed at Merrick’s impact and influence on her company and its people in such a short time.

  With Ohman gone, Merrick was the only full-blooded Drayoom who worked at Rune Corp, and the stories of his battle with the Fire Tribe and how he had handled the dragons on Annoon had been told and retold countless times in every cubicle in the company. Merrick had become a legend with the employees, and they felt safer with him around.

  As they should have.

  Cara would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that she would feel safer if Merrick were around, as well.

  But she also believed that her people were fully capable of defending the company without Merrick, and after she drilled each of the department heads, she felt even more certain that they would be ready for anything the Emperor could throw at them.

  Just as she was about to adjourn the meeting, she heard a loud rumble that shook the building as if a freight train were suddenly bearing down on them.

  Without conscious thought, Cara sprang from her seat and dashed into her office. She logged back in to her terminal and, without pause, activated the bomb-proof en
casement routine. All around her, Cara knew that every window and external door was being covered with slabs of a proprietary plastic that her research and development guys had ginned up. It was made of divinium molecules that grew both fatter and more pliable the stronger the impact against it.

  The plastic had been programmed to act as a smart network mesh that reacted in real-time to any kind of blast or collision. The final advantage that the plastic had over other materials was that it was completely man-made, and it was so far removed from any kind of an organic base that it was highly impervious to magic from any of the elemental dragons.

  The building was on lock down, and at this point there was nothing to do but to wait.

  Cara made her way back into the conference room, but Betty was the only one who still remained.

  Cara turned on the giant flat screen mounted on the wall and set it to the external video monitors so she could see what was happening outside.

  Even though it was the middle of the day, the sky was dark, and a set of three large, very angry wind funnels were moving in to surround the Rune Corp building.

  CHAPTER 71

  THE FIRST THING BRADLEY did when he arrived back at Rune Corp was to go directly to his lab deep under the Rune Corp building.

  The second thing he did was to send the Queen a message, just as he had been instructed. He held the small sliver of divinium that she had given him in the palm of his hand and used the headset and vocalization collar to speak the words that would call her.

  The words from the Earth Dragon’s lexicon flowed from his lips, but nothing happened.

  Bradley struck his worktable with his fist.

  He had forgotten that the lower labs, especially his, were heavily shielded to make sure that any stray effects from untested words were contained.

  With a curse, he left his lab, still wearing the collar and the headset. He took the elevator to the lobby floor and stepped out of the elevator into a scene of ordered confusion he was not used to seeing at Rune Corp.