THE VROL TRILOGY (62 page)

"Yes, my little one, yes. He is training
quite diligently, as you must also do now. Please, review this
manuscript."

Liliana started to read out loud as her
great-grandfather listened to her every word. However, she was not
aware that he was splitting his attention between her and a
completely different part of the castle - where Luigi Bagatelle was
desperately learning all he could, with the assistance of his
little sister, of course.

###

"Brother! Not harder - faster! You must rely
on the power inherent in your blade, and not depend so much on
brute strength!"

Jennie had, for the past week, found herself
in the odd situation where she was the teacher and Bagatelle was
the pupil. It was something he had never imagined would have
happened in his lifetime, but he was taking it in stride, knowing
that his little sister was the most qualified person to train him
with a magic-enhanced katana blade.

"Like so?" asked the former fleet commander,
while sliding the blade smoothly through a fat log of oak.

"Excellent! You are getting it now - kinda
sorta. Now again, but this time while reciting the cantus in a low
whisper. You need to summon the magic to your blade."

Bagatelle did as his teacher requested and
was astounded as his blade decimated another section of the oaken
log, which would have merely cut out a chunk if it were not for his
superior blade and the magical incantation that went along with
it.

"Jennie, was it this hard for you when you
first studied the sword here?" Bagatelle wasn't looking for
sympathy - he was looking for realistic answers upon which he could
gauge his progress.

"It was a whole lot harder for me, G. First
of all, I didn't have magic embedded in my sword. Hell, I didn't
even start off with a katana - it was a medieval-style broad sword,
made out of quadrinium, of course. I was so intent on defeating Max
that I felt a bigger, heavier sword would be the answer."

"Defeating Max? So, you two fought?"

"Yeah - we had a mock battle to the death. It
was part of our training."

Bagatelle immediately felt pangs of regret in
the depths of his stomach, not having realized he would be tested
on the level of a mock battle to the death.

"But Jennie, it was a mock battle,
right?"

"Yup, but he almost killed me."

"You're serious."

"As a heart attack, Brother. I'm sure Gramps
would've stopped it, but Max was about to make me into a hot lycan
shish kabob."

"He's that good?"

"And I didn't even know what was coming -
yeah, he's that good. I think it was at that moment I really
started to give him some respect as a peer. He later told me that I
snapped him out of his blind rage when I called him by his first
name. It was more of a cry for mercy than anything. But anyway!
You'll do great! I'll make sure no one skewers you either. After
all, I can't go losing my big brother now, can I?"

Jennie gave her sweaty brother a big hug and
a kiss on his bearded cheek. They had become much closer since she
found that they were siblings, and even more so since they were in
the Rhönen Dominion. It had ended up being an emotionally healthy
revelation for the both of them.

"I need to replenish my resources, hermanita.
Shall we break for lunch?"

"Sounds good. I heard elk is on the menu
today!"

The two left the training grounds and headed
towards the mess hall. Bagatelle was doing well with his training,
and had trimmed down considerably since his arrival in the
future-past. Diet, training, and salubots working in conjunction
with lycan virus in his system were all bringing him to a state of
peak performance. He only wished that Lt. Commander Vasquez could
see him, as he already had acquired the appearance of a man fifteen
years his minor. Although he never spoke of her, he thought of her
often. He secretly wanted to marry her someday - the woman who
protected him during his months of house arrest; the woman who
guarded the secret of his little sister; the woman who had stolen
his heart early in his career. He didn't even have a chance to bid
her farewell before fleeing to the future, but hoped to address
that error quite soon with the help of his friend Draagh.

Jennie and Bagatelle entered the expansive
dining hall, took seats at an empty table and were almost instantly
served with plates of steaming elk meat and asparagus, along with
some very coarse bread that resembled sourdough - the perfect
combination of protein and carbohydrates. They had been quietly
eating for a couple of minutes, when they both saw a small figure
streak by in a blur, being followed by what appeared to be a small
tornado.

"Liliana, please keep your conjured storm
closer to you, my dear. If you lose control there will be more than
a few people who would lose their meals."

Draagh watched his young pupil with great
patience after having called out to her from across the room, while
Bagatelle looked on with horror as the little girl used her small
twister to envelope a castle servant and cause her to spin around
as if she were in the final cycle of a washing machine.

"Lili, honey, leave the nice lady
alone…
now
!"

Jennie put an extreme, growling emphasis on
her final command, causing Liliana to wave her hand off and gently
place the poor woman on a bench, as she most probably suffered from
vertigo and wouldn't be able to stand on her own for at least a few
minutes, and hopefully not vomit uncontrollably.

"Grandfather taught me elemental cantuses
today, Jennie! I could not help but experiment a bit," said the
little girl, while forcing a bit of a pouty purse on her lips. She
had learned that look from her mother, who was quite adept at using
cute facial expressions to get her way. However, the major
difference between the two was that the younger had mage genetics,
and a fledgling power of suggestion.

"Liliana, come sit here with me and
T
í
o. Pops,
are you going to eat also?"

"Oh but of course, my dear," exclaimed the
ancient Primulus. "I am absolutely famished, as I am sure is my
young student. Elemental cantuses do tend to deplete one's magic
stamina quite rapidly."

The now tight-knit family agreed to regroup
for dinner later in the day, with Jennie saying she had a surprise
for her brother. In the afternoon, Liliana mastered her new
elemental cantus (Draagh was only willing to teach her air current
manipulations, fearing a forest fire if the child were to harness
lightning), Bagatelle succeeded in decimating some trees (and
unintentionally chopping firewood for the castle) and Jennie
started to feel better, even though she missed her husband.

That evening, the entire family - Bagatelle,
Jennie, Liliana and Draagh - all sat down to a hearty dinner of
fowl and roasted bok choy, an Asian cabbage which they quite
enjoyed for its crunchiness. The little girl was on her best
behavior as she planned on asking her mother to take her swimming
when it stopped raining outside, which it had been doing for the
past few days.

Jennie looked at her brother who no longer
looked like her commanding officer - he looked like a very fit man
in his early thirties. The lines were gone from around his eyes;
his gray hair had been replaced by black and he had not only
dropped considerable amounts of body fat, but also enjoyed a
regeneration of collagen in his face and neck areas, completing his
youthful transformation. As long as he was on a magic-enabled world
he would continue to look like that for a very long time. Jennie
smiled and nodded at her brother.

"Yes, I can see. I am sure someone back on
Azul will get the surprise of her life when we return."

Bagatelle shot her a little glare, but
immediately relaxed his expression, having completely given up the
charade of pretending he had no relationship with Lt. Commander
Vasquez.

"Yeah, I think she'll be impressed," he
retorted with a grin, "and I just hope we get back safely and can
make a difference. It seems kind of unfair; if our world were to be
decimated tomorrow we would have a place, or even many places to
live. But so many would die."

"Nothing is fair nor unfair, my dear Luigi,"
exclaimed Draagh, who had been eating voraciously. The fact he was
nearly a god did not take away the need for sustenance, and he
loved to eat. "It is simply how the universe functions. Take
comfort in the fact that no one ever really dies - your energy is
re-purposed and new life arises. Once day, many centuries from now,
when your time in the flesh comes to an end, you will retain your
consciousness in the expanses of non-time where the shards of souls
collect and gather wisdom."

"Um, are you serious?" asked the former rear
admiral, wearing a look of expectation on his face; finally
something filled the void created in his heart when he found that
magic was something akin to subatomic machinery.

"Quite so, my dear boy. Now, if we will, let
us finish with our meals and get some sleep. We shall all have a
busy day tomorrow."

"Oh, that's right!" exclaimed Jennie. "G, we
are taking you on a recon mission tomorrow. Time for some fresh
air!"

"Jennie, may I also accompany you on the
recon mission?" asked Liliana, displaying a hopeful and completely
innocent face.

"No, sweetie. You have classes, plus we'll
need to cordon off some cannibals that have moved a bit too close
to the normals' village to the west. Much too dangerous for a young
lady, even one as special as you."

Liliana said nothing further, still wanting
to work her adoptive mother on the swimming angle.

"Lili, I'll give you a full report of our
activities on my first recon mission in this world as soon as we
get back. How does that sound?"

The little girl simply smiled and nodded her
head. She adored her uncle, and even though she had a tendency to
create havoc, her heart was usually in the right place - when she
wasn't annoying castle servants or the feral cats that guarded the
catacombs.

Chapter
8 - Max Parties Like It's 1999 - B.C.

Early in the evening, inside the Seven Sins
bar, Max sat chatting with Dons and Jessica at a new couch and
coffee table he had hand-crafted (with some custom cantuses, of
course), watching as various people filed into the club - the
majority of them being normals, but with a few female neko hookers
and Lennie, the vampire drummer coming in. As Max had nothing but
bad luck with humans (Adam) and lycans (Marko), he figured he would
chat it up with Lennie as the fellow, even though he was a vampire,
seemed like a genuinely nice person.

It was odd for him to befriend a
vampire, but he figured that his current world was much different
than the world he was from - well, the last world he was from -
after he fled the world he was
really
from. It had been a week since that
eventful day where he soundly pummeled a lycan and thrashed a fake
mage all before noon. Getting up, he walked over to the bar where
Lennie had taken a seat.

"Lennie! How goes it, my friend? Are you
playing tonight?"

Max made an effort to be friendly, as he was
an introvert in a manner of speaking, and constantly needed to work
on his social skills - skills that were critical to his ability to
command fighters.

"Hey mate! Yeah! It's a special show tonight!
We have some new songs too! Found something for zombies, but… it's
really manic-depressive."

"Ah, no worries then, just keep on with what
you were playing last time I saw you. I liked it a lot."

"Hey, I heard you thrashed Marko the other
day. Is that true?"

"Umm… yeah, more or less. Why?"

"Well mate, he's been - well, he's been quite
abusive to my friends. He steals from us and slaps us around, so
when I heard what you did I took up a collection to buy you
anything you'd like to drink. So thanks, man. We appreciate
it."

Max grinned at who was probably the most
sincere person he had met since arriving in Los Angeles (aside from
Jessica), and nodded in thanks. He then looked over at the
bartender and, holding up a finger, watched as a double shot of
Glenfiddich was poured just for him. He was feeling much more
comfortable that evening, having spent some of his earned teeth on
some cotton fabric clothing. He liked his leatherwear, but it
didn't make for the most comfortable outfit in a nightclub on warm
evenings. Aside from that, he never gave any thought to the fact
that it was the end of summer where he was, even though he left The
Rhönen in the middle of spring. If he had, he would have realized
he suffered a time dilation from his errant slip.

Taking a seat at the bar, Max turned
his stool so he could survey the comings and goings of the regulars
who populated Dons' fine establishment - well, as fine as an
establishment could be in what was about as close to what Max could
accurately call a
post-apocalyptic
hellhole
.

"So, Max," asked Lennie, "we never really
discussed how you came around these parts. Were you dropped off
like the rest of us, or were you born around here?"

"Neither, really. I kind of ended up here on
accident, I think."

Max sincerely wanted to discuss his current
predicament with someone, but was unsure that Lennie was the right
person with whom to do it. As far as he knew, all of the residents
of the Seven Sins area were quite ignorant, even believing that the
Vrol were Hell-based demons. However, he didn't blame or look down
upon any of them for it - they were mostly prey for an evil, alien
presence that used them for sport.

Max smelled another vampire enter into the
bar, but detected it was female, which he had never smelled before.
In fact, he had never seen a female vampire during his months in
the Rhönen Dominion. Turning around, he expected to see a horrid,
rotting old hag approach, but instead saw a very cute,
young-looking girl with a pale complexion walk right up and plant a
giant kiss on Lennie's lips.