Emergence: Return of Magic book 1 (9 page)

Katie was happy.  She still had bad moments, thinking
about her father, what she had lost.  But… overall she was happy. 
Even on occasion, joyous.  She knew she was racing toward danger, even if
she didn’t know what it was yet, but she found an intense sense of satisfaction
living in the moment.

John was a part of that, maybe to an extent a big
part.  After their first night together, he managed to be even more attentive,
not taking her for granted, yet at the same time, he wasn’t stifling or
smothering about it.  He was unobtrusive, but always there when she needed
him.  After that first night, the sex seemed to just get better, and she
felt close to him.  She wasn’t sure if she was in love, but she felt a lot
for him.

Nim had grown into a close girlfriend as well.  Goddess
or no, she was closer to Nim than she had been to her friends in college, Nim
was… the best.  She’d been teaching her to use the staff, and she was
gaining some confidence handling it.  Oh, she knew she was still an
amateur compared to a real warrior, but she no longer feared her own weapon,
she knew how to handle it as an extension of her body, and no longer worried
about accidentally hitting herself with the thing.

They’d been cleansing a farm together ever few days, and
whenever they met up with other displaced people, she’d send them to one farm
or another.  Without the tractors it would be labor intensive to take in
the crops, plus with everyone in the cities dead, they simply wouldn’t need
every farm America had.  That all gave her a sense of accomplishment, she
was doing the best she could to help.

Those four things, John, Nim, fighting, and helping others
all contributed to that sense of joy she felt inside.  She was also
getting used to the idea of sensing the balance, and the idea of helping to
maintain it.  Sure, she had free will and didn’t have to, but Merlin had
chosen a descendent that would want to. 

Nim also informed them that two elves, one a priestess, and
an actual real dragon were coming to meet them, and help her on her
journey.  She knew they also wanted her to return to their forest home in
the mountains once the balance issue was addressed, whatever that might
be.  So she was kind of jazzed about that.  She’d never been into
fantasy books, but she had to admit she was geeking about the idea of meeting a
dragon.  The elves too of course, but in her mind they were just humans
with nature magic and pointy ears.  She knew it was more than that but…
she didn’t really know enough yet.

Nim rode alongside her and asked, “So have you been thinking
about spells like I asked?  One day, we’ll return to Merlin’s spot in the
mountains, nearby the elves and you can learn some of his but…”

She nodded, “Yes, the shielding spell obviously. 
Hide?  Kind of like invisibility.  Disarm, which will make the
opponent drop a weapon.  Confusion, which will make it harder for an
opponent to cast.  Simple fire, water, earth, and air attacks, but I have
to admit I’m less comfortable with those.  I like the idea of defending,
disarming, or stopping someone, but killing?” she squirmed in her saddle.

Nim sighed and smiled, “Merlin was often the same way. 
He stuck to advising, and protecting.  He also failed, more than
once.  It is a hard thing though, killing will change you, even in
self-defense.  When you live as long as you will, or can, it isn’t that
far a step between self-defense and judgment.  It’s good your
uncomfortable with it, just don’t let anyone kill us because of it.”

She thought about that, “Did you advise that I should kill
if I think it necessary, or avoid it at all costs?”

Nim grinned, “Yes.”

She rolled her eyes, “Thanks Nim, you’re a big help,” she
said sarcastically.

Nim giggled, “Anytime, but yes.  Avoid it at all costs,
except at the cost of your life or an innocent.  If they can be stopped
from killing, without sacrificing another life, you should do so.  Of
course, that doesn’t mean you should let a killer go either, otherwise you’d be
guilty of the next person they killed, but you can turn them over to the
wronged party, or someone in charge, for the dispensation of justice. 
Your mantle is balance, not punishment.”

She nodded, “That made more sense.”

Nim sighed and looked in her eyes, “You need to work on your
vocabulary.  All your spells are like the way a child speaks, one word at
a time.”

She really wanted to take offense at that, but Nim’s face
was too sincere and caring for her to muster the effort, and beyond that, the
goddess was correct.  She had been thinking up one word spells.

She sighed, “I’ve been thinking about fighting and
defending.  I haven’t’ thought of anything complicated I’d want to use
magic for, after all I should only use it when I absolutely need to
right?  So what do you suggest?”

Nim shrugged, “How about one that disarms, binds, and
ties.  More complicated can mean less magic as well.  If you cast
fire, feed it air, and support it with earth, your fire attack will be
stronger, and take less magic at the same time.  Your general shield from
everything spell, is powerful, but it also sucks up magic like crazy when it’s
hit, as you found out in the tornado.

“A more difficult shield spell would work just as well but
take less magic to maintain.  The shield could bring up earth to defend
from physical attack, or meet fire with water, or an opponent’s air attack with
earth.  Mind magic with dispelling qualities, and so on…  That means
a lot of words, all designed to lead your mind through all the concepts on what
you want your shield to do, making it more efficient.  Creating water to
stop fire takes much less magic than that all-purpose shield will use.

“There are many other things, even travelling from one place
to another in an instant, just use your imagination.”

She shook her head, “I have so much to learn.”

Nim chuckled, “I still have so much to learn, and I’m
ancient.”

“Oh… thanks for the encouragement.  Nothing like an
everlasting task with an everlasting learning curve.”

Nim just laughed in bright humor at her sour comment, and
she joined the woman after a moment.  Nim was so easy going, it was really
impossible to be mad at her for longer than a few moments.  She was still
attracted to the woman as well, but didn’t feel awkward about it, plus, she had
John, so didn’t think it would go anywhere anyway.

She giggled, “At least I won’t get bored.  Do you think
I should speed up, are we wasting too much time helping these people? 
We’re only about halfway to Colorado, we could have been a lot closer.”

Nim frowned, “How do you feel about it, and are you sure
that’s where we’re going, it could just be a coincidence we’re moving in that
direction.”

Katie nodded, “I’m sure.  As we move closer I can feel
the difference.  We’ve been moving about forty miles a day, Colorado is
over six hundred miles from Oklahoma City, so… were still less than halfway
there.  I don’t know, it feels right to help, but am I risking the
balance?”

Nim shook her head, “I can’t answer that, all I can say is
for Merlin there was a measure of… urgency when the time grew nearer, or the
situation grew worse.  I’m not sure you’ll be able to judge that without
some experience.  How does it feel to you?”

She sighed, “Dangerous, but I don’t feel desperate to get
there either.  Whatever it is, it’s under control for the moment.”

Nim nodded, “Well we’ll be with Kurien, Arielle, and
Brianthenia in a day or so, they are close.  Arielle can ask the council
if anything is going on up there that seems out of the ordinary.”

She smiled, “Thanks.  That’s a good idea.  I wish
I could do that.”

Nim winked outrageously, “You can, well, once you meet
someone you can.  John or I, you could communicate with us through magic
if the need arises.  So once you visit the Elven and Dragon council…”

She asked, “How?”

Nim shrugged, “Make up your own spell, I’ll go ride up with
John for a while.”

She sighed as Nim cantered for a few moments and then slowed
by John, everything was a lesson she needed to figure out, she needed to get
over that though, because that wouldn’t change for… forever.  She
understood, if she didn’t figure out how to do things for herself, she’d be
hopeless in a new situation if Nim wasn’t around to baby her through it, so it
wasn’t a bad thing.

First, she closed her eyes, and examined the way the horse
she was on felt in the magic, then looked at John, and then Nim.  She
tried to find a difference, obviously she would need to be able to focus on
that difference.  Magic was connected everywhere on Earth, so that would
be the medium.  She had to find their… phone number for lack of a better
word.

She found the… feel of them, but when she considered
memorizing it, she didn’t need to.  She already had, subconsciously. 
Whenever she thought of Nim, or John, or that first suspicious farmer, the
signature of their presence in the magic came to mind.  She hadn’t even
noticed she’d been doing it.

At first, she thought of manipulating air, create vibrations
in the air to mimic her voice, and do the same for the person on the other end
of the spell, for her.  But that wouldn’t work, or it might work for the
twenty-yard distance right here, but Colorado was four hundred miles
away.  Even though magic was everywhere, she was sure she couldn’t
manipulate the elements from so far away.  Her influence only stretched so
far.

So what did that leave?  Mind to mind contact? 
She was a little leery of the idea, it sounded like an invasion of
privacy.  But… that’s probably how it was done, maybe the spell just
needed to be limited to sending information, and receiving only what was meant
to be sent.  In other words, no mind reading.

She also liked the idea of a kind of virtual reality
illusion.  The words and image would only be in the caster’s and
receiver’s mind, but it wouldn’t be perceived that way.  They would
believe they were actually hearing her voice, and seeing her standing there in
front of them, instead of some invading voice in their mind.  So… she
picked holographic for the illusion of the person’s physical presence, audio
for the concept of sound, choice for if they would accept the spell, and lastly
duplex so it was two-way communication.

She bet most sorcerers didn’t do it that way, because she
was sure if she simply used the word telepathy it would work just fine for her
test.  She’d been practicing drawing a trickle of magic while fighting
with a staff, so it took no effort at all while simply riding to commune with
the magic and charge her staff.  Hopefully this wouldn’t take much magic,
and she could hold that charge for a while.

She also wanted to see if she could fool them.

She cast the spell while suppressing an evil giggle,
including her horse and the sound of hoofs, and kept silent as the horse with
her on it hopefully had appeared next to them.  She couldn’t see it, what
she saw was their illusions in front of her, so it was half working.  She
saw John do a double take, as if she’d snuck up on him.

She said, “Hi guys, what’s up?”

John shook his head, “Nim said you were working on a spell,
having trouble?”

Ooh, one down.

“I don’t know, Nim?”

Nim looked at her and raised an eyebrow, “You don’t think
you can fool me do you?”

She giggled, “It was worth a try, how do you like my spell?”

Nim grinned, “I like it, a lot more complicated than I
expected, which is all to the good.”

John asked, “What spell?”

She laughed, “Turn around.”

When John looked back she waved at him with a grin, and then
ended the spell.  It hadn’t taken all that much energy, the pictures and
illusions were only in the targets mind.  She had just targeted both of
them at once.  She picked up the pace until she caught up.

John said dubiously, “That… was kind of cool, I had no idea
it wasn’t you.”

Nim nodded, “Anyone with magic would have known their mind
was contacted.  Still, I like it, it seemed less invasive, and gives you
the feeling of being face to face with the person.”

She grinned, “That’s why I did it that way, I thought of
simple telepathy but…”

They came around the bend, and there was a road block, and
what looked like soldiers, they were all in Army uniforms.  There were
three by the saw horses, and maybe ten or so farther back.  Of course,
most of them had military type sabers that looked somewhat authentic, not that
she was an expert.  Crap.  She did think it was a bit odd.  Why
a roadblock, when cars don’t work?

John said, “Damnit, this is why I’m supposed to be ahead of
you guys, they’ve seen all three of us, let’s hope they don’t want to cause
trouble.”

She murmured, “Take it easy, we’ll be fine.”

He glared at her, but she let it pass, for now.

“Halt,” one of the soldiers said and they all pulled up on
their reigns.

“What’s this about,” John asked pointedly.

She frowned, he really had a stick up his ass about
something.

“We are here to check people out as they pass.  The
governor activated those of us on duty personally sir, to put down
looters.  Most honest folk stay at home, so we set up checkpoints around
the state in likely travel areas for such groups…”

Another soldier interrupted him, “Geez Franks, why don’t you
take them to the command tent, point out all the checkpoints for her, or I
don’t know, perhaps draw her a copy?  You know, just in case the man with
the sword and his two women need to know.”

Franks blushed, “Fuck you Hernandez.”

Hernandez shook his head, “Which bring us to our point, as
Franks so patiently explained.  Who are you, why are you travelling.”

She smiled tentatively which drew their attention to her,
“We’re mostly concerned citizens, we’ve been travelling and getting groups
together to work farms, to make sure there’s some food this winter, and enough
people to bring in the crop without tractors.  I also have some business
over in Colorado.”