Cal, Frank, Andy, and Bill were standing in front of one of the cyclopean aliens. Ethel and Bug waited outside in case they needed further help. Cal didn’t think they would. Most of their strengths had been catching him by surprise in his child body, and while he may still be in that body, he brought some powerhouses with him to make up for it.
“Hi, I'm Cal, this giant tree monster man here is Frank. He’s the muscle. Andy is my apprentice wizard, and Bill is just amazing. What’s your name?” Cal stared at the man as he spoke. His face did not match his jovial tone whatsoever.
“Twonger. Hrm, I take you’re all here for some interrogation then?” the alien answered with a bitter tinge to its words.
“We are, and considering your attempt on my life, I am fully willing to do this the hard way. So your choice. Do you want to answer all our questions with or without Frank’s assistance?” The air in the room started to crackle with Cal’s words.
Fuck, his rage was coming out. This wasn’t the time for that yet. Even if this man had killed him countless times, he needed to hold the anger down. He clamped down hard on his core, forcing the charged particles to release their mana. He would not destroy the void house just because he couldn’t control his damned emotions.
“Look, you’ve already got us. I’m sure we will both answer whatever you want. I don’t want to die, and I doubt my brother does either.” Twonger said.
Cal bit down on his tongue and then slowly opened his mouth to speak.
“Why are you targeting me?” He asked, his voice was monotone as he continued to wrestle internally with the rage.
“What, you don’t know about the world seed inside ya? How the hell is that possible? Then again, how the hell does a kid end up with a world seed all the sudden anyway? I swear we had just scanned your planet two days prior, and there was no one radiating anything like what you have coming off ya now.”
“So you wanted to extract my core somehow, then?” The venom had bled back into his voice.
“Sure did. That’s why we didn’t just shoot you in the head. Didn’t want to risk anything polluting those mana channels of yers.”
Cal took a deep breath to steady himself and moved on to his next question.
“What were you going to do with the world seed once you had it?”
“Sell it, and those things are worth a fortune. The right buyer will pay anything for it.”
“Alright, last question for now. How are you speaking English? That doesn’t seem like a random thing you’d just pick up before killing me.”
“English? Wait you think we are speaking the same language? Holy shit, you are new to this whole channeling game, aren’t you? Tell you what since I know for a fact this planet is particularly lacking qualified magic teachers, if you don’t kill us, I’m willing to show you some of the ropes of mana channeling. What do ya say, kid?”
Cal seriously considered blasting his head off, but no, he couldn’t do that. The damned creature was right. They did lack any real foundational education when it came to channeling.
“I’ll think about it. For now, you two continue to be our prisoners.” Cal walked out of the room.
A very similar scene played out with the brother. It turned out his name was Onelder, but in everything else, his answers agreed with his brothers. He even made the same offer of basic channeling education.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
*
“So what do you all think? Do we take the offer?” Cal was back in the situation room with his family and friends gathered around for the new discussion.
“Maybe I think we should all join you on a trip to Titan before I set off to the Under Library. See what we can learn there first. Then we can make a decision on those two.” Andy’s face was full of uncertainty.
“Yeah, I like the idea, though is there any point in people without cores coming? I mean, I like some of you, but this feels like a field trip for magic users.” Ethel was smiling despite her claim of only liking some of them.
“She has a point, plus you want to attack the only possible Gryalth location that we know of, so I think it’s best if the rest of us stay here and do some scouting work. We can also put out some feelers for Melissa. Hell, depending on how much you want attention drawn to us, we can just blast out advertising that we are looking for her.” Jen was smiling, apparently enjoying the idea of some chaos.
“You know, I wonder what would happen if we just announced the Gryalth and Agency to the world.” Cal mused out loud.
“The Gryalth would end their current engagement parameters and instead unleash a full assault. They would assume the world has been warned of them and is moving to actively resist. I’m not against doing that if only to gauge their current numbers on the planet, but it won’t help us win any immediate battles if that’s what you are thinking.” Ralth answered.
“Yeah, fair. Okay, so magic users with me, let’s go see if Fulginanis is ready to get us to Titan.” Cal was smiling again.
As much as he hated the idea of working with the alien brothers, the idea of a working wormhole inside their magical void base just filled him with childlike glee. Not to mention that there was likely a real trained wizard on the other end of the tunnel.
Cal led the group to the new partially constructed wing of the void house. Fulginanis had asked the capybaras to begin construction in anticipation of their needs as soon as they arrived this loop. It turned out the wormholes they constructed would be mostly permanent. The energy they required to connect the points meant that it was best to leave the tunnel in place once it was established.
In an emergency, they could sever them if needed, which is why Fulginanis wanted them built in a secure part of the void house. This way, they could attempt to deal with issues before any last-ditch efforts were needed.
“So, how do we establish this wormhole?” Cal asked Fulginanis.
“We establish a spacial gateway by using the energies from your core, and in this case, we can use the world seed energy you picked up to jump-start this. Once the mana tether is released, then we need Andy to channel everything he can into it. I will ride the tether, guiding it to the proper destination and tie it off before returning through the newly established spacial gateway, proper words Cal, spacial gateway.”
“Fine, I suppose I can’t name everything. Everyone ready?”
“Yep,” Andy said
“I am,” Fulginanis said.
“Alright, let’s do it.” Cal felt his core suddenly being drained into his bonded spirit.
Fulginanis then moved to the center of the metal archway that had been constructed and poured the mana into the ground. Cal felt even more start flowing out of him, including a trickle from the world seed as well. He could tell the difference from how much the world's seed energies burnt his channeling pathways. It felt like he had just eaten a habanero.
Fulginanis stopped channeling the energy into the ground and grabbed the now visible mana stream. They leaped into the void, holding it.
“Andy, now, channel as much as you can.”
Andy obliged, and Cal saw his friend nearly pass out from the effort. It was working, though, and he moved to steady him. They both saw Fulginanis disappear into the depths of the void mounted atop a brilliant stream of light.
Andy stopped channeling and fell backward. Cal caught him before he hit the ground.
“That was exhausting,” Andy said before forcing himself back to his feet.
“Yeah, it gets easier. Here, eat this. I found it helps.” Cal fished a bag of chocolate candy out of his pocket.
“Really, chocolate helps?”
“No idea if it’s the chocolate or the cashews, but something about the combination seems to make me feel less like I need to sleep for the next year. So eat up while we wait for Fulginanis’s return.”
Andy poured the bag into his mouth without another question.