The Equilibrium of Magic

by Michael W. Layne

  After less than five minutes, all was still, and the Rune Corp building and its employees were safe.

  The fates of the Alphas and of the brave humans who had fought with such ferocity were not as certain.

  CHAPTER 82

  AFTER HOURS OF BEING bombarded and attacked, the Rune Corp building, and everyone inside it, was finally still and silent.

  Cara removed her hand from Oodrosil’s trunk and walked slowly across the lobby floor. She wove her way cautiously between the groups of employees who still sat on the floor, hooked into their divinium cubes and unmoving.

  Most of them looked as if they had aged decades over the last several hours. The hair on their heads was white, their skin was wrinkled, and their bodies sagged as if the weight of gravity had won a lifelong battle in a single moment.

  Only one of the five video screens still displayed an active feed from the outside world. Its camera was still pointed at the five-story Rune Corp building and showed that it had been fully encased in a giant mound of dirt, stone, uprooted trees, asphalt, and concrete.

  The area surrounding the building was littered with a combination of man-made and natural debris. The parking lot existed only as clumps of ripped up asphalt. Most of the cars from the parking lot were either gone or in various states of wreckage from being tossed about and overturned by the high winds or from being used as projectiles by the Rune Corp employees.

  Sadly, Cara also saw that close to half of the trees that had lined the outside of the building were uprooted and had fallen over on their sides.

  In the distance, the wails of sirens grew closer.

  This was a sad day, but there would be time to grieve later. First Cara had to get rid of the materials encasing the building and then she had to get the Alphas back inside before the authorities arrived.

  As she ran to the stairwell, Cara spoke words of undoing from Terrada’s tongue that sounded like the splitting of large slabs of bedrock. The video screen showed the pieces of the earth and asphalt breaking off from the building and falling to the ground like so much rubble.

  She raced up the stairs until she arrived at the fifth floor where she ran to her office and logged in to her computer. Within seconds, she had deactivated the building’s outer shields and disabled the playback message that alternatively erased and restored employees’ memories as they exited and entered the building, respectively.

  Cara made sure the plastic shielding that covered her office window started to retract before rushing back downstairs to help with the rescue efforts.

  When she stepped into the lobby, she saw that several of her employees had already gone outside and were wrestling to move stones and other debris off of the fallen Alphas. Cara stepped outside into the chaos and destruction, just as police, fire, and ambulance vehicles arrived across the street.

  “Get the Alphas that are alive back into the building and down to see the Doc,” Cara yelled.

  “Cara, this one...he didn’t make it,” one of her female employees said, choking back her tears.

  Cara cursed.

  “Take his weapons and his cube and move them to one of the labs downstairs. Go!”

  As best she could tell, out of the twenty Alphas, five had died, and another ten were injured. Doc Reilly was going to have his hands full.

  Picking her way across the rubble, Cara walked up to the first of the emergency workers, a policeman who was trying to make his way toward the building.

  “What the hell happened here?” he said, as he surveyed the scene.

  “Hit by a tornado—more than one,” Cara said, “and an earthquake, best as I can tell. All at the same time, or close to it.”

  The officer stood with his hands on his hips for a moment before turning his head toward Cara.

  “You mean to tell me that your company got hit by three storms at the same time. I’ve never seen weather do that kind of thing to a parking lot before. Looks more like a bunch of explosions maybe.”

  “I assure you,” Cara said, “that the only explosions we heard was when the twisters hit the outside of the building.”

  “How many folks are hurt?”

  “All my people were inside and are OK as far as I know,” Cara said. “But the damage out here is pretty severe as you can see. And I’m not sure who you might be under the debris.”

  The policeman yelled some orders to the teams of firefighters and other police officers as they swarmed over the area of destruction, beginning their search for remaining signs of life.

  “We’ll take care of things out here. You sure none of your people are hurt?”

  “We constructed our building using the latest anti-earthquake technology,” she said. “And it looks like our investment paid off. Just a few months ago, we had the place retrofitted with anti-hurricane shields, too.”

  The policeman whistled once and shook his head.

  “You and your people are some lucky folks,” he said. “We’ve been getting hit with a lot of weird weather in the area, but this beats anything I’ve seen or heard of so far. You wouldn’t happen to have any video of the storm would ya? Just for the records.”

  Cara shook her head.

  “The external cameras aren’t tied to the backup system,” Cara said, hoping the man wouldn’t step into the lobby and see the live feed still being transmitted on their remaining video screen. “We lost our power right before the storms hit and have been on emergency backup ever since.”

  “No problem. Weather channel’s been talking about this for that last hour or so. Boss said it wasn’t safe for any of our vehicles to get too close until everything passed. You won’t have to convince anyone about what happened here, that’s for sure.”

  Cara thanked the police officer and let his people and the other rescue workers go about their business picking through the rubble. She knew they would find at least five of her people—the fallen Alphas. They would also find their divinium suits and their weapons, but that was a problem she would have to solve another day.

  Cara had seen some of the fallen Wind Warriors being retrieved by their fellow soldiers and taken up into the sky—to be given a proper funeral amongst the clouds, she presumed. But she was also sure that at least some of the dead Wind Warriors had been left behind when the Emperor’s troops had retreated as quickly as possible when Oodrosil had encased Rune Corp in its protective cocoon.

  When the rescue workers found the bodies, the police would want to have a chat with her, but with only a couple of detectives involved in the one-on-one conversation, she easily could use Terrada’s words to make the problem go away in their minds, just as she had done with the deaths of her people over at the Earth City so many months ago.

  She would have to be very careful to keep her story as close to the truth as possible, while denying any knowledge of who the Wind Warriors were. The police would easily discover that the five Alphas were in her employ, but she would just claim that she was unaware they were outside the building when the storm had hit. Luckily, the reality of what happened was so far from what anyone would ever guess, that no one would even come close to guessing the truth of what had really occurred.

  For now, she had to get inside and help her people. Her first priority was to make sure that Doc Reilly had enough assistance and supplies to take care of the wounded Alphas, and then she had to see if Bradley had somehow made it back alive.

  If he was still among the living, he was going to get a very long vacation, paid in full by the company. Because of him, the enemy was held back just long enough for Oodrosil to reengage and to surround the building.

  Without him, their doors would have been breached, of that she was sure.

  Next up, she needed to send all but emergency essential employees home, which meant she had to reinstate the security wards and the sub-audible spells at the doors. This whole incident had the potential to turn into a major security breach if her employees went home and started talking about their day with other people. And more importantly, when
they made their way out the door, they would also have their internal energy stores replenished by Oodrosil through whatever magic the mighty tree used to work his daily miracles.

  After Cara made sure that Doc Reilly had enough room to tend to their wounded and their exhausted, she decided that she needed to get in touch with Merrick to let him know what had happened. Lastly, she had to meet with the local power company to make sure their power was restored as soon as possible.

  She cursed and then closed her eyes.

  If she knew Merrick as well as she thought she did, when he heard about the attack, he would want to do something about it as soon as possible. Cara needed to decide what she wanted to do before she updated him.

  The last thing she wanted to do was to go to war with the Wind Family. Her employees had fought valiantly, but they weren’t warriors, and they hadn’t signed up for this. She hoped that Merrick would listen to reason and choose the prudent path for once.

  Even though she doubted that would be the case, she reminded herself that Merrick made a habit out of surprising her.

  CHAPTER 83

  JOANNA HAD SEEN and done a good number of things in her reporting career. She had even been sent oversees to Iraq to be a wartime correspondent, but only from the relative safety of an established American base.

  Even so, she had been close enough to explosions to feel the concussive force inside her chest as they rattled her internal organs. She had seen American troops coming back from the front lines with pieces of their bodies missing, the victims of everything from enemy fire to improvised explosive devices.

  But she had never seen anything like what she had just witnessed outside of the Rune Corp building.

  Because she was parked across the street to do her surveillance, she had gotten the entire event on film, but what she had seen and what she had captured was so far beyond the limits of reality, she didn’t think anyone would believe her even if she showed them the video.

  Never before had Joanna been afraid of being committed to the loony bin for bringing her editor a story.

  She watched the action on the playback monitor one more time just to assure herself that she wasn’t crazy. There was the first tornado, then the second, and even a third. Then, as clearly as one could tell with all the debris flying around, people started coming down from the sky and attacking the Rune Corp building.

  She saw what could only be described as nature coming alive as trees and boulders and even the parking lot rose up to stop the attackers.

  And then she watched as a small group of people came out of Rune Corp and made a valiant attempt at stopping the invaders. She watched again on the video as fireballs exploded and high-pressure streams of water came out of seemingly nowhere. Lastly, there was an earthquake that spit up large segments of the ground and then covered the building like a protective cocoon.

  Once the attackers saw this, they started picking up their fallen friends and ascending to the sky like flying was the most normal thing for them to do in the world.

  Joanna had never seen anything like that ever in her life other than in science fiction movies with very expensive special effects budgets.

  Even though she had witnessed it all and filmed it, even she didn’t believe it completely.

  She sat back in the bucket seat of her car and took a few deep breaths. She would wait two or three days, until the authorities were mostly done picking through the scene for bodies. She’d have to risk showing the footage to Chip and get his opinion on it ahead of time.

  After that, she had to figure out a way to get in to see the company’s new CEO, the blonde woman she had seen talking with the police officer in charge of the first responders—but not without first taking precautions and making plenty of copies of her digital video files.

  This was more than a big story, and Joanna was going to handle it prudently and with care. She still wasn’t sure exactly what she had yet, but she knew that whenever it finally broke, it was going to change the country and maybe the world forever.

  CHAPTER 84

  MERRICK AND JONATHAN rose from the ground and found themselves standing next to Merrick’s house in the Earth City. It was a feat that rarely occurred within the actual borders of the city, but when Terrada herself wanted to transport someone to a specific place in her kingdom, that is what the Earth Dragon did.

  “I have to find Mona,” Merrick said, as he and Jonathan made their way through the roads of the Earth City. As they walked along briskly, on their way to Balach’s home, Merrick noticed that the city was quiet, and the roads were not traveled. It was early in the morning, as best as he could tell, but there should have been more Drayoom walking about.

  When they arrived at Balach’s house, a strange sensation crawled up Merrick’s spine as he knocked on the front door.

  He waited for a few seconds. He knocked again.

  There was no answer.

  “Do you think there’s something going on we don’t know about?” Jonathan said.

  “Mona might still be at the healer’s place,” Merrick said.

  Merrick and Jonathan took off at a full run through the empty streets of the city, until they arrived at the healer’s door. When he knocked, the door opened, seemingly on its own. Merrick was stunned to see Balach on the healer’s table, his mother, Adriana standing next to him.

  He stepped up to Balach and touched his hand carefully. Balach did not look like he was bleeding or like he had any external wounds, but his breath was ragged and his chest heaved and fell as he struggled to breathe.

  “What happened?” Merrick said.

  “I’m sorry,” Balach said as he opened his eyes and looked at Merrick. “It was the Prince. He’s still alive.”

  Merrick wasn’t surprised to hear that the Prince was still alive, but he did not understand why Balach was apologizing.

  “Why are you sorry, brother? You don’t have anything to be sorry...”

  And then Merrick understood.

  “Where’s Mona?” he said.

  Adriana touched Merrick’s arm.

  “Prince Takehiko is here with a small army at the edge of the city. They just walked in like they knew the words of entry into the mountain. Mona’s with him right now on the main road into the city.”

  Merrick let go of Balach’s hand. Merrick felt like he was hearing Adriana speak to him while standing inside a giant glass jar. Sounds were muted and heavy, and he willed himself to blink in order to snap himself out of his stupor.

  “And what is the Council doing about the situation?” Merrick said quietly.

  Balach had closed his eyes and was drifting into unconsciousness again as the healer uttered soft words of comfort over his body.

  “About an hour ago,” Adriana said, “Prince Takehiko and two of his guards burst into our home and tried to take Mona. My son fought them, but they were too strong. The Prince used a word from Araki’s tongue to force an evil wind down my boy’s throat. He hasn’t been able to breathe right or barely speak since then.”

  Merrick leaned down and brushed Balach’s hair from his brow.

  “Do you know any Wind Magic that could help him?” Adriana said.

  “Without knowing what word the Prince used, I’m too afraid I’d hurt him even more if I just tried one of their words,” Merrick said.

  “The boy is strong, but there is a storm raging inside his body that is draining his magic,” the older healer said with a shaky voice. “There is not much to lose at this point.”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” Merrick said.

  He placed the palm of his hand on Balach’s chest and spoke a series of words in Terrada’s tongue. They were the same words he heard on a daily basis back at Rune Corp, always spoken at sub-audible levels each time one of the humans left the Rune Corp building.

  He had memorized the words months ago, but he had never known their full meaning, because they had been put there by Ohman. Now, as he spoke them to Balach, he understood that they were actually tones th
at called to Oodrosil, asking him to channel some of the energy from the Forgotten Forest into the desired host.

  Merrick said the healing worlds again, knowing that the mighty Yew was in touch with all parts of Terrada, including her worshipers who still walked the planet. Even though Merrick’s mind and his heart wanted to rescue Mona with no further delay, Merrick couldn’t abandon Balach, his friend who was more like a little brother to him than anything else.

  Within only a few minutes, Balach began to stir, healthy color returned to his face, and his breath grew steadier.

  “He has turned a corner,” the healer said, her eyes wide with astonishment. “The winds inside him are calming at last.”

  Merrick removed his hand.

  “I’m sorry, Adriana, but I have to leave now. I have to find Mona.”

  “The Prince has an army with him,” Adriana said, “and he’s demanding that the Queen turn you over to him for crimes against the Wind Family. I know you’re powerful, Merrick, but even you can’t take on an entire army by yourself.”

  “And what of the Council?” Merrick asked again.

  “We received word a few minutes ago that they are split, and the Queen refuses to send the army or the Fianna against the intruders.”

  Merrick turned to leave, with Jonathan hurrying behind him.

  “Merrick, wait!” Adriana said. “There’s something you have to know first. It’s not just Mona’s life that the Prince has in his hands.”

  Merrick turned back around to face Adriana.

  “What are you trying to say?” he said.

  Adriana’s mouth moved for a couple of seconds before she began to make sense with her words.

  “There’s no other way to say it,” Adriana said. “Mona is pregnant with your son, Merrick.”

  Since joining the world of the Drayoom, Merrick had been tortured, nearly killed several times, and had lost many of his friends and mentors to death, one by one, but he had never experienced the level of raw impact that he felt when Balach’s mother uttered those words.