Chapter 11
The World Destroyer
(Dr. Grier)
There was a replica of the ancient lodestar stone, multiple of them in fact. Their purpose, and why the school would have so many was easy to understand. Namely, the school and most importantly its protective faculty didn’t want the lodestar stone to be stolen by anyone who might find the ability to break into their otherwise loosely guarded facility.
In fact, it was only today that the real remains of the planetary destroyer were actually on display in the first place. The real reason of course was that this whole field trip had been designed and carried out by Dr. Grier herself, with the express intent to test out Misha Collins.
Regardless of how this testing went, even if Misha didn’t show active signs of being an awakened one, Dr. Grier still knew that she had to keep the girl around.
“This next part of our journey is a secret part of our trip. One where only five people have access to enter.” Dr. Grier said as she pulled out a large lanyard from around her neck that had a RF encoded chip inside. Of course, the lanyard and the RF chip both were not needed and were actually designed to be bait used to lure potential thieves. A misdirection play that was sadly needed with the number of people who would pay handsomely to gain access to the resources, and knowledge that lay in this lowest level of the facility.
“Due to its location, and level of security, we often refer to this section as the dungeon.” Dr. Grier stated in a faux sinister voice.
“Whoa.”
The bedazzled kids all stared on in mostly awe and reverence at the statement. Their words seemingly matching their enchanted stated. Even the Teacher let out a slight wave of awe, a sign that she was able to partially resist the continued influence of Dr. Grier’s powers.
Everyone but Misha seemed both eager and excited to enter.
Misha on the other hand seemed coldly indifferent to the whole ordeal. She could be here, or she could just as easily be anywhere else on the planet for that matter. The place and location did not seem to matter.
Again, the more Dr. Grier saw the child, the more she couldn’t help but wonder what type of witch the child would be.
Chills.
Dr. Grier felt her body involuntarily react to the waves emanating from the lodestar stone, a sign that a piece of the real lodestar stone was out and on display.
“I’m scared.” One girl called out as they crossed the zone of influence of the stone.
Looking back, Dr. Grier saw that the girl that reacted was one of the two who showed a slight reaction to the magical tree branch. This girl had the ancestry of witches within her, that much was a given.
In fact, everyone that had at one point had a family member that touched or spent any length of time near a part of these special lodestar stone would eventually awaken bloodlines that would be magical in nature.
Through intensive studies Dr. Grier found that her own powers would slowly improve the longer she was exposed to the lodestar stone. The children of the professors were not only capable of wielding magic earlier, but often developed into mages that were far more capable of greater feats than their parents. Such were the benefits of prolonged exposure to the stone and similar fragments.
Of course, there were a few drawbacks, many members of the cabal noted remarkable improvement by being near the stone. Cabal members that either quit or moved away often succumbed to cancer within years of leaving. Originally it was thought of as being a curse, or something the body did naturally, as people would grow old, retire, and then die. That was the natural course of life. It wasn’t until years of research later that it was proven that being in direct contact with the stone made you healthier to a point where you were seemingly always at the height of physical perfection. Your muscles grew rapidly, you seemed to defy age as your body maintained a youthful appearance. Then as soon as you left the power of the stone, your body would break down almost immediately. First there was an atrophy of muscles, then the rapid loss of youthful vigor, followed by the fact that massive lumps would grow within your body and metastasize within years, or in cases that were exposed for a particularly long time, months.
Dr. Grier knew that she herself was a perfect candidate for near immediate death should she leave the stone’s warm embrace. She first noticed a correlation when she would get sick from prolonged absences, like when she was younger and would travel abroad for conferences and the like. That was when she realized the initial studies of the lodestar stone were both accurate and incomplete. She caught her first cold when she traveled, and it nearly killed her. Since then, she has not left the stones side, and even secretly carved off a portion that was fashioned into a necklace that she now wears around her neck. The fragment of stone is so small that it doesn’t fully work, unless she lets the stone touch her skin directly.
These personal observations of hers have been left out of her notes. While she could make huge headlines within the magical community of her findings she would be caught for numerous problems. Least of which being that she desecrated a part of the sacred lodestar stone. Which would almost encourage others suffering from similar fates to hers to do something equally as drastic. Then there would also be the case that more people other than witches would likely want pieces of the stone available to them, so that they could create their own magical lineages. Lineages that would be grown and fostered outside the guidance of the council.
“You feel that do you?” Dr. Grier asked the girl that seemed to be quivering slightly due to the seemingly overbearing presence of the lodestar stone. “What you are feeling is the faint electromagnetic resonance of the space stone. You are one of the few who can detect such energy fluctuations, meaning that you are more in tune with the world around you than ninety-nine point nine, nine percent of all instruments made by man to date.
“Really?” The girl asked, suddenly feeling excited by hearing the news of just how special she is.
“Uh, I can feel it too.” One of the boys called out, “it’s super creepy.” Then to add credibility to his findings he rubbed his arms as if they were suddenly cold.
Seeing the boy and his reaction to praise being given to the girl, Dr. Grier inwardly sighed to herself. She didn’t need to be a sixth-tier witch to realize that the boy was lying, despite having the compulsion spell telling her exactly what she had already understood to be the truth of the situation.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Before Dr. Grier could call out the boy, many of the other children also began crying out with similar claims.
“Oh, I can feel it too. That is so cool.” Another few kids said.
“What? I don’t feel anything.”
“You must not be as cool as me.”
“Oh wait, I can feel it now. It is that weird humming thing?”
Sigh.
Dr. Grier let out a sigh of exasperation, glad she already knew who the true children with the chance to develop magical talent were from among those that were all pretending to have a reaction.
Of those present, only the two with magical affinities had legitimate reactions to the lodestar stone, the others all clearly lied about being able to feel the resonance or were part of the quickly growing faction that thought it was now cool not to be able to be affected by the stone.
It only took seconds for the children to break up into semi factions, with the majority of the students falling into the category of wanting to feel the energy. While the others didn’t.
Oddly, Misha stayed off and seemed to stare into the wall.
Had it been anyone else, Dr. Grier might have thought the girl was just reading a sign. That or figured the girl was just being standoffish, which she had this entire trip. Yet, seeing where the girl was looking, an intense feeling of fascination grew within Dr. Grier. For Misha was looking in the exact right direction to see the lodestar stone.
While the other magically talented kids seemed to have a vague sense of the direction of the stone. Namely that it was forward and to the left. Misha seemed to be staring through the protective walls, and directly at the location of the display case. A display case that normally only displays a replica stone but had been switched out for today’s tour.
Seeing the girl’s response, Dr. Grier let out the last little bit of tension she had been holding. All the while the girl had avoided most of her attempts to read her ability levels, and so she had no measurable proof of what the girl’s abilities truly were. Yet, after seeing her now, staring through the wall and all but burning holes directly into the stone’s location, Dr. Grier knew this girl was magically talented.
Not just magically talented, as she was staring in the exact spot of the stone, something that Dr. Grier could only do if she focused and mentally overlayed the direction, she was sensing with the mental layout she had of this facility. The fact that this girl was able to find the stone perfectly, well it was huge as it meant she would clearly be a powerhouse when she fully awoke to her powers.
Seeing her now, Dr. Grier also felt the need to have her mother tested out. While children were often slightly more talented than their parents, that only happened when the mother or father had prolonged exposure to fragments of the lodestar stone.
Seeing the girl and having witnessed her resistance to Dr. Grier’s own powers, there was a moment when she felt that Misha might be more powerful than any child, she herself managed to give birth too.
Of course, Dr. Grier had never married, there was never a male candidate that she found to be capable enough for her own credentials and pedigree, but the girl’s father? Maybe, the idea was intriguing, particularly if he showed proclivity towards being able to wield the craft.
Seeing Dr. Grier stare at Misha for a moment, Ms. Folk came over and spoke.
“Don’t worry about her. She often stares off into space like that, but she is almost always paying attention.” She began, and then with a slightly lighter tone added, “savant syndrome.”
Hearing that, Dr. Grier nodded in understanding, but inwardly she knew the truth. Yes, while others might perceive her staring off into space as a sign of some form of deficiency, Dr. Grier knew the truth. That wasn’t the look of someone spacing out, it was the look of someone intensely focusing on a distant point. Mentally she went through the myriad of different ideas, of which she came to the conclusion that only a few were likely accurate, though she would need to test out a few of her ideas to come up with a final answer to her quandary.
For now, Dr. Grier decided to watch the girl like a hawk and see what other details she could gain from the girl.
Also, for now, Dr. Grier wanted to hold off most of her own observations until she saw the girl interact with the lodestar stone.
“Come this way, and we will see and even be able to touch the stone.” Dr. Grier said.
“We get to touch it?” One boy asked, seemingly excited most about the idea that he would finally be allowed to touch something, versus all the times he secretly touched different objects, when he thought no one was looking.
“Yes, we will all get a chance to touch a part of the fabled planetary destroyer. The rock that fell from amongst the stars and crashed into our planet, causing a ripple effect of climate changes and natural disasters that ultimately led to the destruction and downfall of the dinosaurs.” Dr. Grier said.
“Cool!” The same boy who faked being able to feel the stone earlier shouted excitedly.
With that Dr. Grier began leading the gaggle of kids around the different hallways, denoting different discoveries that all came from their having and testing of this particular chunk of the lodestar stone.
“Misha, you aren’t coming?” Ms. Folk’s voice echoed in the long corridors. Normally Dr. Grier wouldn’t stop at this, no one child was worth breaking up her flow. Also, most of the students all seemed to be following her merrily through the hallways. If it wasn’t for the name that was spoken by the teacher, Dr. Grier might have gone on without even witnessing what was happening.
“No.” Misha said, flatly, her voice almost devoid of emotion as she spoke.
Hearing the word, Dr. Grier stopped, almost causing a collision of kids who all suddenly stopped their progress as well. Many crashing into a few of the students that were first to halt their progression. Fortunately, none of the students were pushed hard enough to tumble forward into Dr. Grier.
“Come on, this is the best part.” Dr. Grier said. Then turning to the other students, Dr. Grier began speaking. “Did you know that the Aztecs were among the first people to have found the healing properties of the lodestar stone and set about worshipping the stone as if it was a fragment of the very sun itself.”
“Whoa.”
“So cool.”
The kids were all excited. Seeing their enthusiasm, Dr. Grier pressed on.
“Did you know that there is a tradition that states you can find out if you were blessed by the Sun God just by touching the lodestar stone.”
“Really? How?” A kid asked.
“Simple, you can touch it, and if it lights up, you are blessed by the Sun God. Some say that if you were blessed heavily enough by the Sun God, Huitzilopochtli, that you were believed to be able to move the very elements themselves?” Dr. Grier said, then added, “I bet each of you that felt the waves of energy from the lodestar stone will be very powerful and blessed by the Sun God.”
“See that, come on Misha, it will be fun.” Ms. Folk said.
“Yeah come on Misha.” Dr. Grier said, infusing a lot of her power into her words.
“Come on Misha.”
“You don’t want to miss it.”
With that, all the other students also chimed in, testing the girl’s resolve, which she ultimately caved into.
“Okay.” Misha said, then reluctantly began walking forward.
The room they entered into was a giant wide-open room with two walls of different depictions of various aspects of Aztec life, and the different advancements they managed to provide to the world.
Then at the very back of the room was a sealed display case, with a foot of see-through plexiglass that could stop a rocket launcher.
Once everyone was inside the room, Dr. Grier gestured for everyone to go forward to the lodestar stone.
Behind the protective glass, the stone was not much. Even those that were sensitive to the effects of the stone were easily able to approach without any issues.
With all the kids right next to the stone, Dr. Grier pulled out her remote control to the room.
Click-clank.
From the far end of the room, the giant metal door that they had all entered through closed tightly as giant steel rods bolted the door into place.
“What?” The kids all cried out, realizing that the one way into and out of the exhibit had just been sealed.
“This is just a security precaution. This stone is so valuable, that we have to keep it under lock and key, especially while displaying it to people.” Dr. Grier said, as she pressed another button that caused the giant plexiglass panel to begin to peel back from both sides, revealing the lodestar stone.
The opening was smaller than the overall size of the stone, meaning that people could put their arms through and touch the stone with ease, but would not be able to grab said stone and pull it out.
“Is that really necessary?” Ms. Folk asked, pointing to the fact that the display case was now open and that the kids all had to reach their arms through the opened case to place their hands on the stone.
“I assure you, this is very necessary.” Dr. Grier said.
“Can I touch it?” The excited boy from earlier spoke out.
“Sure.” Dr. Grier said, wanting to get this over and done with.
“Form a line children.” Ms. Folk said, instantly taking control of the situation and instantly adding order to the chaos that had been about to unfold. “One at a time. You will go up, touch the stone and then come back and wait. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Ms. Folk.” The children all spoke out in unison.
With that Ms. Folk nodded her head and let the kids go up and touch the stone.
“Ugh, it feels all slimy.” The first boy said, before adding, “that is so cool.”
“It didn’t glow.” The first boy said, pulling away and looking at his hand. “My hand tingles.”
Hearing that Dr. Grier nodded, that meant the stone was already working, while it wouldn’t awaken the magical potential within him, his children might be able to use a bit of magic if they continue to get exposure to the stone.
“What, no way?” Another boy, clearly the first one’s friend spoke up.
“My turn.” Another boy shouted, as he rushed forward and put his hand on the stone. “Oh that is slimy. And my hand tingles as well. That is so cool.”
“Should the kids’ hands be tingling?” Ms. Folk asked.
“Don’t worry, it is a natural phenomenon that is completely safe.” Dr. Grier said, making sure to lace a lot of power into her words.
With that Ms. Folk’s eyes glazed over from the deluge of power being sent into her mind.
“Okay, as long as it’s safe.” Ms. Folk stated in a mechanical tone.
“Completely.” Dr. Grier added.
The kids were making their way through the line. All the while Dr. Grier waited for the girl in the back of the line, this Misha, to have her turn at being exposed to the lodestar stone.
No one, not even Dr. Grier herself, was prepared for what would happen next.