“Orlan!” a woman’s voice shouted as he walked into the lobby the next morning, a few other members of the first lance tensing up before realizing who it was.
“Hey sis,” he replied calmly as his sister threw herself at him, wrapping him in a hug.
“The national guard finally let us all go this morning,” she explained into his shoulder before pulling back, “I saw the fighting from the ground, when we had to run from the airplane to the FEMA place. Is that really what you do all the time?”
“A lot of it is just waiting around and training,” admitted Orlan with a grin, “but you are okay? Everyone from your plane made it behind the line safely?”
“Ya, we’re all fine, but what about you? You look pale, and I heard you were injured!”
“I’m fine, just healing backlash,” Orlan dismissed her worries.
“My healing, like most healing spells, simply accelerates the natural healing process,” Lailra explained, seeing the confusion on her face, “so it can cause fatigue and hunger, often referred to as healing backlash, depending on the extent of the injuries.”
“I’ll be fine,” Orlan insisted, “the backlash was minor.”
“Is the backlash dangerous?” his sister asked, ignoring him and looking at Lailra.
“It can be, especially in those who are naturally frail, like children or the elderly,” the knight said, “for them extensive healing can be just as deadly as the wounds being healed, but considering my Lord, your brother’s, strength, he’ll be fine.”
“Okay,” she sighed.
“I told you I’d be fine!” Orlan complained indignantly.
“Yes, but I believe her more,” his sister shot back, the ladies of the first lance giggling and nodding in agreement, “anyways, I just wanted to make sure you were okay, I heard you got pretty beat up in that fight, and seeing it myself… one of the governor’s people approached me and said you were staying here, seems they knew we were related.”
“I’m glad you’re okay, sorry I wasn’t able to check on you sooner,” Orlan replied with a smile.
“You were busy, it’s fine,” she waved away his apology, “anyways, I have to get back to my family, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
A few more words were exchanged before his sister left, returning to the taxi the government had paid for to take her home. The encounter had left him in a good mood, one that lasted until his group reached the airport. While Orlando International Airport was closed to normal operations, the governor had somehow managed to secure permission for a single private aircraft to take them back to the protectorate. The reason his mood soured was the presence of Abel who, true to his word, was waiting for him with two of his guards, and looking quite smug. Orlan had hoped he simply wouldn’t show, but he’d known that hope was in vain even before arriving.
The air crew didn’t ask any questions, simply nodding when Orlan confirmed the three men were joining them. There was a slight chuckle among the first lance when the pilot announced they were bound for ‘Magic-man International Airfield’ as that had apparently been what the pilots had unofficially designated the runway. But otherwise the flight back was quite tense, the chartered jet had plenty of room for both first lance and the three outsiders, but not so much that they could get away from one another. The result was a few of the ladies of the first lance having whispered conversations while Orlan and Abel had a long stare off.
Overall he was relieved when they finally arrived at his island, sensing immediately when they passed into the bubble of influence. The near omniscience it granted washed over Abel and his two guards, surprisingly Abel was a first sphere mage, weak enough that Orlan hadn’t been able to sense his mana before. All three of them had magical weapons of some kind, their bullets all being tier one with the first few even having enchantments on them that Orlan suspected was the barrier piercing magic. With minimal magical senses it wasn’t hard for Orlan to infiltrate their weapons with the power of his Anchorheart without their noticing.
His knights were the first off the aircraft, as they’d discussed previously, followed by Orlan and finally Abel. As expected, Abel made his move as soon as they were all off the aircraft, pulling his pistol and pressing it to the back of Orlan’s neck.
“Keep still, feet on the ground, hands visible at your side,” he said confidently, “however strong you are, I doubt even you could survive a bullet to the brainstem.”
“What are you doing?” Orlan asked, feigning confusion.
“I believe you said you’d have an advantage once we were on your island?” Abel said with a smug smirk, “I’m sure your knights are good, but not even they could get to me faster than I can squeeze this trigger.”
“And so you want to escort me to the castle to retrieve your eye?”
“No, I’m well aware that you can teleport by stepping, so your feet are going to remain firmly planted. And keep your hands still, we know you need to reach out to pull things from your, as you call it, personal space,” Abel added, seemingly unbothered by the other knights who had surrounded them, not yet drawing their weapons but looking ready for a fight, “other than those two abilities, you need to summon a magic circle to use magic, which is slower than my finger. Even if you were faster, the bullets in our weapons can pierce whatever shield you put up. So what’s going to happen is one of your girls will go get our eye while we wait here.”
“You really have thought this through,” Orlan admitted, “and you are entirely correct, at least, mostly.”
“Oh? Are you implying we missed something?”
“No, more that you simply couldn’t have known all my abilities because I haven’t shown them. For one, you think we didn’t notice you plant that bug?” Orlan asked, sensing Abel tense up slightly, “we all saw it as soon you stuck it to the underside of that table.”
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“To be fair I didn’t,” one of the ladies of the first lance offered.
“Ok, most of us sensed it,” Orlan corrected dryly.
“Then your senses are better than we thought, so what?” Abel asked, but Orlan could hear the edge of worry in his voice.
“Just pointing out I have capabilities you don’t know of, and before I continue, do you want to rethink your strategy? Remove that gun from the back of my head and we can talk about this like adults.”
“Your request alone makes it clear you have no counter, so no, I don’t think I will,” said Abel after a moment, “so send someone to retrieve the eye.”
“I was afraid you’d say that,” Orlan sighed before lowering his hands and turning around. As soon as he started moving Abel pulled the trigger, only for nothing to happen.
“The safety is on,” Orlan said dryly, Abel quickly moved to undo the safety only to find it stuck in place. Both of his guards seemed to have the same issue.
“What, how?” Abel stuttered.
“Magic,” Orlan said with a grin, “I gave you the chance to talk like reasonable people, but now? The three of us are going to have a long discussion.”
“Three?”
\-\-\-\-\-
“Joel! You bastard!” Tom shouted as Orlan led the man he’d known as Abel into the room. After disarming him and his guards he’d sent some of his knights ahead to set up this meeting.
“Oh, Tom, you’re still alive?” Abel, or rather Joel, asked.
“Good, you two know each other,” Orlan remarked.
“What’s he doing here?” Tom demanded, his glare fixed on the other man.
“He came to demand the Eye of Providence back, tried to pull a gun on me, now we’re going to sit down and talk.”
“About what?”
“About your world,” Orlan said, gesturing for both the men to sit at the small table, “you seem to both represent a fractured secret magic society, and I’d like to know more.”
“I already told you what happened,” Tom said as he sat.
“You told me your side,” corrected Orlan, gesturing to Abel, “I want to hear his.”
“And why would I tell you anything?” Joel asked.
“Because so far I only know what your, apparent, enemy has said. I’m giving you a chance to correct the record as it were.”
“Go on Joel, try to justify what you did,” Tom growled. For a moment Joel simply looked between the two other men, seeming to think about what to do. After nearly a minute of silence he sighed.
“Fine,” Joel sighed, “I take it he told you that we’re a break away from the Sons of Cain.”
“Kayan,” Tom corrected.
“Whatever, and I imagine he also told you that Abel was the first mage, and Cain, in his jealousy, killed him? Well, it’s wrong, Abel was the first mage and taught Cain how to use magic. Cain was jealous of his brother’s power and so banished him, and all those he’d taught, to another world. In punishment, Cain was killed and the world was forever split in two,” Joel said.
“And how do you know this?” Orlan asked.
“A couple hundred years ago, a… let’s call him a patron approached several members of our order, telling us the truth. This patron told us the world wasn’t meant to be split between magic and mundane and, instead of trying to ensure magic didn’t return, we needed to help him bring it back.”
“Who is this patron?”
“I’ve never met him, I don’t even know if he’s still alive, all I know is he’s powerful and goes by Abel, despite not actually being Abel,” Joel answered, “that’s when the Sons of Cain split, half wanted to follow Abel and return magic to the world. The others wouldn’t believe him and fought to stop them.”
“Is there a reason you didn’t know about this?” Orlan asked, turning to Tom.
“Many of our members vanished without a trace, the Sons are a very cellular organization, information doesn’t spread very fast,” Tom said after a moment, “it’s possible everyone who knew about this died in the fighting.”
“I was told we tried to cover our tracks,” Joel agreed, “and I know we’ve put a lot of effort into remaining hidden.”
“Is that why you infiltrated our ranks and tried to kill me?” Tom asked.
“Nothing personal,” Joel shrugged.
“Do you know how many of us you did kill?”
“Calm down, both of you,” Orlan said sharply, silencing the shouting match before it could begin, “Tom, did you know Joel was part of the rival group?”
“I suspected, but couldn’t prove anything,” Tom said, still glaring across the table, “we’ve known there was someone working against us for the last decade or so, ever since it was discovered the relics were missing. But with the chaos of the rifts? It was hard to tell if Joel was with them or just some hired killer.”
“And why did you try to kill them off?” Orlan asked, turning to Joel.
“Because his group has been doing their best to stop us, Abel gave us a list of things we needed to bring back magic and his people have been stopping us,” Joel said.
“You can’t bring magic back! Do you know how many people will die?” Tom asked.
“Magic is man’s birthright! You can’t deny it to us!” Joel countered.
“I said calm down!” Orlan growled, his voice no louder but still seeming to resonate through the room, shaking both men, “I don’t care about your goals, my only job is to protect people from rifts. And if your people are responsible for the appearance of rifts on this side, then don’t expect me to help you,” Orlan said to Joel before turning to Tom, “however, the rifts are here, and it seems magic is returning, like it or not. Now, while neither of you seem to know half as much about magic as you think you do, you’re the only ones on this side that know anything. So, I’m going to offer you both the same agreement as Protector Lords have with those in power on the other side.
“I shall stop rifts, kill beasts and protect people by whatever means is available. And, in turn, you are going to stay out of our way, got it?” Orlan asked, looking between the two of them.
“I came here to offer help,” Tom was the first to speak, “I may have overestimated the amount of help we could give, but my intent remains unchanged. It seems we’re both interested in saving people at the least. I had hoped to secure your assistance against, well, him,” he gestured to Joel, “but I’m not going to make demands.”
“If there’s one thing I agree with him about, it’s that magic is dangerous,” Joel said after a moment, returning Tom’s glare, “if you mean what you said about leaving us alone, then don’t teach people magic. Cancel your magic school and I should be able to convince my superiors to leave you alone.”
“No,” Orlan said simply, “people have the right to defend themselves, and that requires magic.”
“Then teach us! We already have a base of people like myself, I believe you call us awakened,” Joel insisted, “we’ll protect people.”
“Why not ask your patron to teach you?”
“Like I said, I don’t think he’s alive, he may have died in the fighting when the Sons broke in two, before he could pass on his knowledge beyond how to bring magic back. Maybe he didn’t see the point when no one could learn magic yet.”
“Regardless, my answer hasn’t changed,” Orlan said, “I’ll teach magic to whoever wishes to learn.”
“You’ll only get more people killed.”
“People will figure out magic eventually.”
“Slowly, controllably,” Joel replied, “not in this chaotic manner you intend.”
“So you’ll let people learn magic, but only to the point that they remain weaker than you?” Tom asked sharply, “you don’t want to save people, you want power.”
“And you want to deny humanity the power that could save us!” Joel shot back, before pointing at Orlan, “while he’d simply unleash it to let us kill ourselves!”
“Seems this discussion is at an end,” Orlan sighed.
“So what, you going to have me imprisoned? Because I didn’t agree to your ridiculous terms?” Joel asked.
“No, I’m going to return both of you to speak to your respective groups,” Orlan said, glaring at Joel, “I’ve stated my stance and intensions. How your groups move forward is up to you. Get in my way and we’ll have issues, stay out of it and we won’t. Simple.”
“It’s never that simple,” Joel replied.
“We’ll see.”