Jim

He grabbed his coffee, nothing was keeping him from it this time, and joined Adelfried peeking through the blinds at a short elderly wrinkle of a man. Adelfried whispered, “I told you there would be magic wielding crazy people.”

The man wore an odd mishmash of brightly colored clothes and an enthusiastic smile, like a used car salesman selling thrift store clothes, door to door.

“I don’t like it,” Adelfried whispered.

Jim confirmed the man wasn’t holding a weapon or religious text of some kind before turning to Adelfried. “Well, if he was here to hurt us, I don’t think he would knock.” He threw the door open before Adelfried had time to disagree.

The man delivered a slight bow. “Good morning. My name is Nathaniel Weathersby. Sorry to call on you at such an early hour, but I think we can be of mutual assistance to one another. You see, you seem to have a problem with the Sovs which I believe I could help you with. All I would require in exchange would be some of that ESH you were tossing about yesterday. Therefore, would you gentlemen consider a fair trade?”

Jim turned to Adelfried. “Any of that make sense to you?”

Adelfried shook his head.

The old man considered them for a few seconds before continuing. “Uh, I saw the kerfuffle last night, the cars flying every which way and the freezing and the zapping and wow!” He smiled. “Really impressive, I might add. And I figured a man such as yourself, with your abilities, could use a little information since you seemed to not realize who the Sovs are. Which I must say does seem a bit odd for a man of your obvious prosperity and potency.” He smiled and bowed again.

“One sec.” Jim closed the door. “Thoughts?”

“I don’t trust him,” Adelfried muttered, “But it would be good to hear what he knows.”

The wrinkled man yelled from outside the closed door, “Good, you shouldn’t trust anyone, not even me, but I couldn’t harm you if I tried, I’m barely a conjer.”

Jim reopened the door. “A conjer?”

The old man cocked his head quizzically. “A conjer, you know conjurer? Stronger than charmer, but not a mage.”

Jim rubbed his eyes and sighed. What kind of twisted dream was he having? “A mage, a conjurer and…what the hell are you talking about?”

“Hmm…I see you have much to learn. How about I come inside, and we talk it over with a cup of that coffee there? Sure smells good.” His wrinkly face grinned again as he stared at Jim’s mug.

What could this old man really do? “Sure. Why not?” Jim tossed the door open and waved him in. They adjourned to the kitchen and Jim started to brew a pot of coffee eyeing the peculiar man.

Nathaniel helped himself to a chair at the kitchen table and twisted his head slightly. “So you really don’t know the three basic levels of us ESH folk? Charmers, conjurers, and mages?” Nathaniel twisted his lip as he studied them both. “Okay. I’m a conjurer, you know, kind of middle class, capable enough in a scrap, if need be, like conjure a shield or what not. But no match for a mage. Them mages, them’s the ones you have to watch out for. They’re powerful folk, they’re the ones running this world.”

Jim held up his hand. “What about the Sovs, you know, the ones who attacked?

“Now, I don’t claim to understand the Sovs, I mean, who does, right? And no one really knows why they do anything…well I guess ole what’s his name, the Warlock of Stonehenge does, but no one else I suppose.”

Jim paused his coffee brewing. “You said you had information. This doesn’t sound like information. Why did they attack?”

“Well, I can tell that you haven’t a clue as to who they are, am I right? I can tell you all about them Sovs and Wreckies, and the Lazzies, Rogues, and even Isos, if you want, not many know about them. See, Sovs is short for Sovereigns, they believe, well their head honcho warlock guy believes that anyone with ESH should rule sovereign over the land and be free to use it as they please. Right? Like don’t be holding back from the people without ESH. But that’s why them Wreckies are always having to keep them in line. You know, keep ESH hidden from the common folk. Of course, them Wreckies can be just as bad sometimes, just ask my sweet Harriett. But anyway, how’s that coffee coming?”

“Yes, here you go.” Jim handed him a cup and set a sugar container down on the table.

Nathaniel tilted the container over until an excessive amount sugar lay at the bottom of his mug. He stirred it and took a sip before continuing. “Ah, good stuff. So, before I get too far down the road here, we should talk about my Harriett. See I figure I could exchange my knowledge for some of that ESH.”

Jim sat at the table next to Nathaniel. “Okay. I’ll bite. What is this ESH you keep talking about?”

“Mmmm.” Nathaniel said taking a sip of coffee. “You don’t know what ESH is either? Extra Special Human energy? You know, it’s one of the abbreviations, but that last e is dropped for convenience like. It’s, you know, all this zip, zap, boom pow stuff that my friend here was throwing around last night.” Nathaniel nodded at Adelfried. “And you see, my Harriett is about out, and without more she’s not going to make it very long. She’s not as, oh what’s the word, uh efficacious with the ESH as me you see, and well, I need it for her. She’d found a new source, but those Wreckies came and took it for some big thing or whatnot, and I just need some or well she’ll be in the ground before long and I just couldn’t take it. I tell you, no, I just couldn’t and anyway, here I go again.” Nathaniel rubbed his eyes. “But yeah, so what do you say to a little help for a man trying to save his wife’s life?”

Jim asked, “If she is sick, can’t she just go see a doctor?”

“Ha ha ha, well now, that would be a sight to see but no, I am pretty sure a doctor couldn’t do anything for her.”

“What, some kind of incurable disease?”

“Well, no, she is almost three hundred years old, and I don’t think normal medicine has that one figured out yet, no. But a little juice from you and she’ll be right as rain, do a little, you know, body rejuvenation, a little ESHmetic surgery, if you know what I mean. I mean, I think one of those lightning bolts you shot would probably do the trick, if I’m to estimate correctly, yeah, and she’d be good for another couple years, easy.” He paused to consider the blank stares from Jim and Adelfried. “With more ESH she can heal herself.”

Jim nodded. “Ah, gotcha.”

Nathaniel dug around in his pocket and dumped a pile of clear crystals on the table. “So, now, if you could just fill some of these Follis, I think we would be even.” He picked out a handful of square crystals from the pile and slid them over to Adelfried who picked one up to look at it.

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“What is this?” Adelfried said, examining it closely.

“You know, nummus? Magic money? ESH money? Okay, I guess you wouldn’t, would you. Well, you see that pile there is a like a few hundred nummus. These little ones are one nummus, these five-sided ones are a fiver, and these round ones, which if you look closely have ten sides is worth ten, of course. And these Follis are worth forty.” Nathaniel pushed a few of the larger sized round crystals over to Adelfried. “So, if you could start to fill some of these Follis up for me we can continue our little chat.”

Adelfried narrowed his eyes. “If I do this, can I trust you to not reveal us to anyone?”

Nathaniel lifted his chin up. “Your business is your business, and I am not one to be talking about it. I would never tell anyone anything about what you—"

“What do I do?” Adelfried interrupted.

“Oh yeah, sure, just hold it and kind focus on pushing hard into it until it starts to glow, after a few minutes it will glow brighter. You’ll feel it get full, and then you’re done.”

Adelfried scooped up the crystals.

Nathaniel smiled. “No, you can’t do them all at once you need a lot of—”

The crystals immediately illuminated a bright sky blue in Adelfried’s hand. “Like this?”

Nathaniel’s head jerked back slightly. “Oh, my, you are quite efficacious. Quite efficacious indeed.” He took a crystal from Adelfried’s hand to examine it closely. “Normally it takes a long time, heck, I figured we’d just talk while you fill’em up, but I see you don’t need any time at all. No sir, you appear to—”

“And for your discretion.” Adelfried grabbed another handful of clear crystals which instantly started to glow.

Nathaniel grabbed Adelfried’s free hand and shook it. “Oh, thank you, thank you, kind sir, you truly are a generous person, I really do appreciate it and so does my sweet Harriett. Maybe I should bring Harriett by some time so you can meet her. Well now no, maybe not. She doesn’t warm up to strangers so easily. Now don’t go getting the wrong impression of her, she doesn’t like—”

Jim waved his hand to cut off the freight train of noise before it started. “Tell us more about the Wreckies,”

Nathaniel stuffed the pile of glowing crystals into his pocket like someone was going to take them from him before he continued. “So, them Wreckies well, let’s see, they always think they’re doing the right thing, I guess, I mean I didn’t have a problem with’em, until now, but they can be a bit brutish, but I get it, they have to be you know, trying to police the magic world and fight back the Sovs. The thing is, it’s not like anyone elected’em and Harriett and I really are Lazzies, but you know we don’t have to go talking political views. You see we’re more of a live and let live bunch, we—”

“Hold on,” Jim interrupted. “How many ESH wielders are we talking about? Like how many of you are out there?”

“Oh, I don’t know, it’s not like there is a big club and we all meet together for an annual convention or anything and pay dues, but if I had to guess probably thousands, maybe tens of thousands considering all across the world. Yeah that sounds about right. I don’t think no one really knows for sure though, I mean, that’s not that many when you consider billions of people on the earth and all.”

Could there really be that many? How would so many people have such a large secret? Suspicion scrunched his face. “You are telling me there are tens of thousands of wizards running around the world throwing cars and carrying magic stones in their pockets and the rest of us normal people don’t know about it?”

“Well, when you say it like that, it sounds so fantastical, like there is some grand conspiracy to keep everyone in the dark, but well, for starters there’s only like a handful of wizards out there and they keep to themselves you know, being all powerful and all knowing, I am sure they are busy—”

Adelfried cut him off. “This Warlock of Stonehenge, he is a wizard then? Is he knowledgeable?”

“Well, I suppose, he seems to have eyes and ears everywhere, hard to keep a secret from him. And then you have the Mistress Kreeg who runs the Wreckies, a fiery one that one, don’t get on her bad side, but hey, don’t get on any wizard’s bad side because they could disintegrate you as easily as picking a piece of gunk out of their teeth. But, you know, if there was one you don’t want to get into a fight with that’d be the one, she—”

Adelfried held up his hand. “Who would you go to for information about portals?”

“You mean like how them Wreckies and Sovs are always showing up everywhere, like they can just be anywhere at any time? Yeah, that is a tough one. Now, I think any wizard could just teleport, or at least that is what they say. You see, it’s about power and skill. You gotta have the umph to pull it off and you really have to know what you are doing with that one or you know, off you go into some godforsaken wall or into the middle of the ocean, or you know, I heard of a guy who was trying to figure it out and put themselves out in space, but not sure how much I believe that because how would anyone know someone did end up in space. Were they there? Did they see it? Did they follow them with a spacesuit on or—”?

“Yes.” Adelfried threw himself in front of the steamroller of words. “Which wizard would be the most knowledgeable about that?”

“For my money it would be Sahir or the Warlock of Stonehenge, but, well, you don’t want to go looking for either of them.” Nathaniel stopped to take a sip from his cup of sugar coffee.

Jim, shocked at such a short response, put his cup down before taking a sip. “Uh…why not?”

“Well, who do you think is throwing all those cars at you? You know, all of them Sovs work for the Warlock, he’s the one attacking you. I mean, I guess he would be pretty easy to reach but—”

“What about this Sahir then?” Adelfried jumped in.

“See, the problem with Sahir is just, well, trying to find him. And, of course, if you do, they say he makes you kind of mad when you see him. And not the angry mad, but the losing of your marbles kind of mad and well, no one wants to do that, do they? But I think I know someone who can help you. Oh, what is his name…” Nathaniel stopped to look down at the table twisting his lip up. “Chad, Chad…something or rather, anyway, he is kind of one of the experts on Sahir, well, wizards in general, as I recall. He studies them, like a renowned expert or something like that. Anyway, he is a regular at the dance club I work at in the Seventh Ward. Always there, every night, real friendly if you get him in the right—”

“Seventh Ward?” Jim said, starting to think Nathaniel was off his meds. “There are only six wards in Houston.”

“Well, not exactly, but in any case, I could show you how to find him. Just come back to the same spot as last night, like around ten? And I will take you to the club.”

“Agreed,” Adelfried replied.

“Hold on.” Jim threw a hand up. “We need to talk.” He pointed to Adelfried and then out of the kitchen. After the pair stepped into the closet together and shut the door, Jim whispered, “This doesn’t smell right, you were just attacked yesterday, and he is telling us to go right back there. I don’t like this, those freaks are probably still out there looking for you…us, whoever.”

“But Jim, this could be my way home.”

“Or your way to getting caught. We don’t even know if we can trust this guy.”

“I trust him.”

Jim grabbed his neck as his frustration with Adelfried grew. “You just said you didn’t trust him just a minute ago. Are you saying you can’t figure it out on your own or are you just desperate?”

Adelfried sighed, his eyes fell to the floor. “Yes, I admit, I am desperate. I have been studying the Root for about twenty years now and I have no idea how to create a portal home. I got here because of an accident. But from the sounds of it, this Sahir has been spending his whole life learning about magic, or ESH, whatever it is called. Plus, think of all the technology from this world mixed with their study of magical science. I mean, he will know stuff I may never discover.”

Jim rubbed his temples trying to make the pit in his stomach go away. “Look, I get it, you want to get home. I can’t imagine what you are going through, but that doesn’t mean you should rush in and make a bad decision.”

“How about this…I will continue to try until we run out of different types of quartz. If I have not made any progress, we go and see this Chad.”

This was better than rushing out after the attack, but still this sounded risky. “Fine, but no matter what we wait at least a few weeks for all this to blow over. I don’t want you going out there and bringing anymore crazy back to this house.”

Adelfried grabbed Jim’s shoulders and bowed slightly. “That is fair.”

When they got back to the kitchen, they found Nathaniel with a fresh cup of coffee pouring a mound of sugar into the cup. “Just taking the liberty to helping myself to another cup, hope you don’t mind. Need that caffeine and sugar, right?”

Jim wasn’t sure what that meant, but decided he wasn’t willing to sit through the long-winded reply that was sure to follow. “We are going to hold off for now on meeting Chad, do you have a phone number in case we change our minds?”

“Sure, sure, I guess I can understand, with them Sovs chasing you about I wouldn’t want to go out right now neither.”

Adelfried said firmly, “Remember, not a word to anyone about us.”

“Yeah, yeah, I won’t forget. And I do have to be getting back to my Harriett and share the wealth with her.” Nathaniel stood up and chugged every bit of sugary coffee from his mug. As he headed out of the kitchen he stopped and looked them both up and down and added “If you do come to the club, remember, it’s a nice club, so…eh make sure you dress up or they ain’t gonna let you in…you can’t go wrong with black, you know, classic color, goes with everything.” He gave them both what Jim swore was a look of disapproval at their clothes. “See you when I see you.”