Seattle, Washington, February, 2054
It rained.
The words encapsulated the Pacific Northwest. Especially, during the rainy season which was about half the year.
Cal stood on the school’s roof listening to the harsh staccato the heavens pummeled into his umbrella.
Why use plastic when a simple telekinetic forcefield would have kept him completely dry when the wind decided that it rained sideways in random spurts?
For the people watching, of course.
He had given them a scare appearing on the roof without their notice.
To be fair he had called them to let them know he was there.
Naturally, they were upset that he hadn’t presented himself and obtained permission to enter their city.
It was a good reminder for them.
Why appear on a school’s roof in the first place?
Because the person he wanted to speak to was doing story time for the kids.
Although, he questioned the appropriateness of doing Alien in fire puppet form for under 10-year-olds.
He did see Sophia’s reasoning at telling a monster story.
Monster were real and it was mostly beneficial for kids to understand that as early as possible.
He was right there with the kids in their classroom. Watching through his astral form as fire puppet Ripley played her deadly game of mouse and cat with the fire puppet xenomorph.
Sophia sporadically interjected to highlight the clever tactics the fragile human used to stay one step ahead of the implacable alien predator.
He was both saddened and pleased to see that many of the kids were taking notes in a serious manner.
Any knowledge that might save their lives in a similar situation one day was good knowledge as far as he was concerned.
The kids gasped. They hid their eyes behind splayed fingers. They jumped and screamed. And finally, mercifully, they cheered as the ultimate predator vanished out of the airlock in a puff of smoke.
Sophia bowed, beaming at the kids before saying a few words of encouragement about learning their lessons well.
“And always remember that even though you are all smol and squishy you aren’t weak. Just use your best weapon.” She poked her forehead. “Your brains, duh!” she said when they looked at her with confusion.
“What do we say to Ms. Freeman?” the teacher, a grizzled old fighter hiding a magitech laser eye behind an eyepatch and a magitech foot in vintage Air Jordans said.
The roared as one.
“Thank you, Ms. Freeman!”
“Aww… it’s always fun for me. I hope it’s the same for you!”
The smile vanished as soon as she stepped into the hall and closed the door behind her.
Up the stairs she strode.
Quickly, briskly.
Concern flashed across her features, but she mastered them before she stepped out into the rain.
She flicked her lighter, pulling the tiny flame into a copy of the umbrella in his hand.
The soft sizzle was almost lost in the pounding on the rooftop.
She smiled though it didn’t reach her eyes.
“So, some weather we’re having.”
He didn’t scan her thoughts out of respect. Just kept his passive scanning for threatening thoughts directed at him that he tended to keep up when not in places that he considered safe in part because said places had several different threat detection systems in play.
“I always kinda thought it was weird that you and Isaac decided to live here. But, I thought about it more and rain all the time isn’t really that big of an inconvenience for people with fire powers.”
“It’s good exercise. Not that it makes much of difference for my brother.”
“Oh?”
“Don’t give me that. I know you know.”
“Honestly, I don’t watch personally. It’s mostly the satellites and they’re programmed to specifically look for sudden and impossibly powerful eruption of heat. It’s what your brother asked me to do.”
“I know that. You’ve got your ‘countermeasures’,” she gave him angry air quotes as if attacking the air. Her fire umbrella flared. “He still won’t tell me what those are.” She crossed her arms underneath her chest.
“And I can’t share them unless he tells me it’s okay.”
“Why are you here? Another mission for my brother to lose more of himself? Oh, but it’s worth it, I’m sure.” She scowled. “What did he say? Never mind. Of course, he agreed.”
“Actually, I didn’t. He didn’t. I came to you first.”
“At least you’re not too much of a dick to bother him at this time.”
“When have I ever done that?”
“Fine. That was unfair of me.” She huffed as the flames over her head swelled for a moment before receding like a pot on the verge of boiling over being pulled off the stove. “You’ve never done that and we’re— I’m grateful.”
“It’s been a few months since I’ve talked to you guys.”
He waited in silence, giving her the space to decide how much she wanted to share if she wanted to share in the first place.
In a way, he was being most unfair because he already knew the situation.
He had spoken true about the satellites, but had lied by omission about the other ways he kept tabs on Isaac.
The man had asked to protect the people of Seattle from himself if necessary.
Cal had promised.
“Is the system losing its effectiveness?”
Sophia looked off into the distance before responding. Unlike her brother, she was not made of fire, merely controlled it. Yet, her eyes seemed to blaze as she took in the rain-soaked city. The skyscrapers in the distance. The needle-like building standing out from the rest.
“No, it’s not. It’s still working like your wizard friends promised it would.”
“Do you need them to give it a look? Do some maintenance?”
“Thanks, but that won’t be necessary. We’ve got our own wizards now and we’ve developed classes and Skills enough that maintenance isn’t an issue. My hope is that time and experience will bring levels, which will bring improvements so that my brother… well, you know how it is.”
“The more his flame is siphoned the more human he is. We’re still working on a more portable version of the system so that he can walk around instead of spending most of his days cycling between each chamber. How’s they system handling the energy load? Are 4 chambers enough? I know that projections put you at about 8 months to a year before you might need to add a chamber.”
He already knew the answers, but conversation was an integral part of being human.
Plus, he didn’t need to confirm Sophia’s paranoia about the whole spying thing.
“It’s okay for now. The siphon and conversion machines are running perfectly. We’ve been keeping up with our energy storage crystal production. Thank you, again, for providing the raw materials for that.”
Pulling crystalline formations from the ground wasn’t that difficult and a few tons lasted a long time.
He didn’t even charge them for it.
Earning good will was better than tangible wealth, like precious metals or Universal Points.
He had enough of the latter two and could get more practically at will.
“We have enough to power the entire city for years with what Isaac has put out to date. From the way things are going we’ll run out of room to store the crystals before anything else.”
“Start selling them. I’ll buy some. The energy is fire-aspected, but I might have heard somewhere that can be converted into something like neutral energy, which can then be converted into whatever. Granted, doing that might be extremely complicated and only a handful of people on this planet have the combination of knowledge, power and skill to do it in an efficient and non-explosive manner.”
“That’s what we’ve gathered from our experiments, but I wouldn’t say no to anything you’re willing to share instead of payment. Maybe you can facilitate some trading. Something like, we give 2 crystals of fire energy and get 1 back of the neutral or another type?”
“I think we can get you a better return than 1 for 2.”
“So, you’d really have no problems with us selling them?”
“Nope. Why would I?”
“On the spires marketplace?”
“Sure.”
“We won’t be able to vet every single buyer.”
“You want a no sell list?”
“Well, yeah, I don’t want to sell a fire crystal with enough energy in it to power an entire building for a year to some genocidal murderhobo adventurer or genocidal religious cult. I’d feel somewhat responsible if some crazy pyro dictator immolated the rebellion or something. Or some asshole mage creates an army of fire elementals and burns down a forest. You know where I live. The last thing I need is for the spirits of the rainforests to develop a grudge.”
“I would think they’d give this place and you a wide berth.”
“Harder to burn wet stuff in the middle of a rain storm. At least it is for me.”
“I’ve always wondered why you guys settled here. The environment is inimical to your powers.”
Sophia shrugged. “It rains a lot. We thought it’d help keep Isaac’s fire down. Moving to a hot and dry place seemed like it was asking for trouble, especially, for everyone else around us.”
She didn’t include herself in the category of those at risk from Isaac’s impossible flames even though she was merely resistant, not entirely immune like him.
“I’ll get you that list right away.”
“Hmmm, no rush…” she mused with a painted fingernail tapping her cheek. “How bout a second list?”
“Sure. What kind of parameters are you looking for?”
“It’ll be like Santa Claus. A good list to go along with the bad one. I want the crystals to go to good people.”
“According to whose standards?”
“Mine, mostly, but you’re a good dude, so I think I can trust yours also. And I don’t want just the rich and powerful that can afford what I’m thinking are going to be pretty expensive costs. I’m looking to give young, good people a boost. And good communities that can save points and put them to other uses instead of power generation and defenses.”
“I saw that you’ve got a lot more of those magitech flamethrower emplacements on your walls.”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“Using the crystals are actually a lot less volatile than the fuel we used before. They last a lot fucking longer too.”
“Are you sure that the forest spirits aren’t already pissed off at you?” He grinned.
“Nope. All the druids and nature-type people said it’s cool as long as we don’t burn the forests. Besides, not all forest fires are bad. You know, that circle of life balance stuff.”
“So, three lists then?”
“Whatever works for you.” Sophia regarded the city skyline once again, chewing the inside of her cheek. “So, what are you here to ask my brother to do?”
“Nothing in the immediate future.”
“It’s a fight, isn’t it?”
“I promised not to bother him unless it was for something that would really make a difference.”
“Sure, sure. I just wish that you’d ask him to help for anything else except that. He does enough fighting just to keep us safe.”
“It would be to keep you safe. You had a chance to review what I sent you from last year?”
“I’m up to date on everything you send.”
“I wasn’t sure.”
“Just because I don’t respond doesn’t mean I don’t read and watch. I get how dangerous this demigod thing with the Americans can turn out. Thank God they haven’t attacked us. Condolences, again for your losses.”
“What happened there could happen here to you guys. I think you recognize that.”
“As long as they have a hate boner for you then they won’t try anything with us. You said it yourself. They lack the resources and power to fight a war on more than one front. Although, from what your reports say, they’re not fighting much of a war at all.”
“That’s what happens when their war machinery keeps getting blown up or dismantled. Honestly, the demigod teleporting in is the only real threat they have.”
“As long as you’re sure that they don’t have nukes.”
“They don’t. At least none of the old Earth conventional ones. They’re working on a variety of magical ones, but for some strange reason their magic-types just can’t push through the mental blocks keeping them from a breakthrough past more than a couple of steps.”
“Do you really need to bother my brother?” She sighed. “In person? A message or call wasn’t enough?”
“Opsec,” he shrugged. “I’m doing all of these little head’s up talks in person. Less risk of eyes and ears I don’t want getting a look and listen. Really, it’s nothing like nailing him down to commit right this instant. Depending on how many I can get, he might not even be needed.”
“I’m going to ask you to make that happen.” She beckoned him toward the stairs. “You can talk to my brother, but kinda sorta put him at the bottom of your list, yeah?”
“You got it.”
“Promise.”
“I sense a ‘but’.”
“It might end up being a short list.”
----------------------------------------
Norway, June 2054
Alin blinked at the sun, not directly because he wasn’t the sort of moron that stared at the sun.
He had been expecting it, but seeing the sun out when his watch said 9 p.m. was disorienting.
The shuttle dropped him and Kat down in a grassy meadow where Uncle Eron waited for them before flying back to the skyship.
Two weeks-ish until the next skyship rotated in.
More than enough time for him to investigate a few remnant ritual circles both in the wilderness and in settlements in the region.
The stone circle teleportation network would make travel easier.
At least it was a lot more dignified than being carried by his uncle.
“That was a waste of their time,” his uncle said. “I could’ve just carried the two of you.” His uncle balanced a huge, wooden treasure chest on one shoulder lightly.
“Thank you, but no,” Kat said. “We were not about to look like babies in front of all the cool rune fighters.”
The people in question were being very loud inside the massive walled fairgrounds they had erected outside their larger, walled town.
It wasn’t an original pre-spires town.
The closest one was a few kilometers down the narrow, winding road.
The new town, Second Asgard, got its name because the founders had been literal children when they had decided to start something new rather than remain in the old.
As orphans, they had preferred to look forward than cling to the past.
A past that only contained pain, suffering and death.
“The summer solstice!” His uncle took a deep breath taking in the flowers in the meadow. The grass. The freshness of the air. “I can’t wait for you to try Nadras’ meads. So many different flavors!”
“We’ve tried them before. You’ve brought bottles over, like, every birthday and holiday you can make.” Alin felt that he was quite familiar with the troll prince’s brewing.
“I like them!” Kat added.
“It’s way better fresh!” his uncle said.
Guards up in the tall watch tower waved down as they walked up to the gate.
Monster corpses littered the grass in greater piles the closer to the thick walls of earth, wood and stone that appeared partially grown owing to the chaotic nature of the three materials melding together. Glowing runes covered the surfaces.
A quick look revealed that there seemed to be a pattern to which runes had been etched into which surface.
At least 4 different runes per surface, which made 12 in total.
He itched to push his gray out to taste their flavors so to speak.
The morbid part of him wondered if they felt like Lilah’s sigils. Especially, the one sigil that made him feel really bad.
“Where’s the door?” Kat squinted at the wall.
“I’m guessing it’s right there.” He pointed at a section of the wall that resembled a tangled nest of twisted roots and branches, complete with berry-bearing vines and flowers.
As if on cue, the roots and vines moved, pulling apart to reveal the interior of the festival grounds.
“Relentless!” a guard bellowed down. “Will you drink with me later?”
His uncle narrowed his eyes as he gazed up.
“Is that Thor Jr? Jesus H. Christ, kid! What’s your mommy feeding you? You’re like half a foot taller and a couple of feet wider since the last time I saw you. And that was barely a year ago.”
As if his uncle didn’t have eyes that made an eagle seem like they needed glasses.
“Yeah!” the big young man beamed and shot thumbs up. “You remember!”
“Of course, kid! How could I forget that loud voice? You know where to find me when you get off watch duty.”
Alin hesitated as they neared the runes, but felt nothing in the end.
Kat grabbed his hand and pulled him along as they followed his uncle.
They were stopped many times by people who had great big smiles, crushing handshakes and even more crushing bear hugs for his uncle and, to his mild consternation, him and Kat.
“Everyone is so tall,” Kat whispered.
“Really? I didn’t notice.”
At a hair over 6 feet, he appeared to occupy the lower end of the scale compared to most of the men and no small amount of women.
Kat was tiny by comparison even though back home she was above average for a woman.
“Let’s head to the main food tent. That’s where Nadras will have most of his dispensers and I’ll introduce you to at least some of the leaders,” his uncle said.
To call it a tent was wholly insufficient.
It was more like multiple tents each the size of a Southern California McMansion. They covered an area that, at a glance, was larger than one of the old arenas back home that they used for ancient sporting events and the GCA.
A mass of humanity greeted them beneath the high-ceilinged canvas.
Enchanted with runes, of course, otherwise they would’ve needed a lot more pole and cable support to hold everything up.
Children darted through the throng waving colorful strips of cloth tied to the end of thin, flexible sticks.
Sparkling bubbles trailed from the flapping ends.
He walked into a cluster, popping them with his face.
“Strawberry?”
Music filled the air, mingling with a riot of happy conversations and challenges.
They were greeted with smiling faces.
Rather, his uncle was.
The ones he and Kat got flowed off his uncle.
He returned them as best he could despite feeling slightly uncomfortable.
Too many unfamiliar people in an unfamiliar place.
Even if the vibe was just like the street festivals they had back home.
The smells were glorious.
People ate on long tables and benches.
Serving men and women carried trays of grilled meat and glasses of beer or mead continuously from somewhere else.
Skills had to be in play because he couldn’t see any of them handling the load otherwise.
A tiny, slip of a woman twirled around him and Kat with what looked like ten huge glasses in one hand, a triple-stacked set of trays in the other and a fourth balanced on her head.
A loud crash suddenly hushed their immediate vicinity.
A young man glared at a mess of broken glass and amber gold rapidly seeping into the short grass.
“Party foul! Whoever had Sven in the pool is the winner!”
“Not so fast!” Sven, Alin presumed, snapped. The young man pointed at the mess. “Undo My Mistake!”
Reality went into reverse.
Shards flew to his hands, turning into whole glasses filled with amber liquid with just the perfect amount of foam.
“I’m not out yet!” Sven crowed as he continued to his destination.
Alin’s uncle brought them near the center of the massive tent where a happy woman sat atop a ridiculous-looking wooden throne set atop an even more ridiculous platform.
Her dark hair was done up in a braid that resembled a crown atop her head. A pretty face marred by several scars, including a wicked looking one. Three wavy lines running diagonally all the way from the corner of one eyebrow to the opposite jaw line. Muscular biceps not that far off from his own flexed as she raised a wooden stein the size of a beer barrel.
The runes tattooed all over her arms and body judging by the faint glow underneath her thin summer dress flared with obvious magic.
“We would have words from the queen of the day!” a voice called out.
“Speech! Speech! Speech!” the chant echoed.
“No! I am queen, thus I proclaim. No speeches! So, Drink! It’s the solstice! Skål!”
Boots stomped into the grass.
Fists pounded the table.
Several hundred people shotgunned their beer or mead, or at least gave it their best shot.
None of them beat the queen, who not only downed the barrel, but almost finished ahead of them all.
She pounded the empty barrel on her platform.
“More!”
“Your majesty,” his uncle sketched a bow while keeping hold of the treasure chest.
“Eron!” the queen leapt into his uncle’s arm more like a young girl than a grown woman.
Alin remembered the stories.
His uncle had told a sanitized version, progressively getting closer to the full truth as he had gotten older between each telling.
Evil Santa Claus. Children stuffed in a magic sack. A toy making operation kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface that would horrify the hardest of men and women.
“Deirdre. Did you grow again?” his uncle said.
Now that the woman wasn’t lounging on her throne, he could see that she was very tall. At least six inches on his uncle, which meant five inches on him.
“You say that every time,” she laughed. “I stopped growing a long time ago.”
“I guess I’m the one shrinking then. It happens to us senior citizens. Let me introduce you to my nephew and his girlfriend,” his uncle said.
Alin barely reached a hand out when he found himself crushed in a tight embrace.
Kat barely had the time to narrow her eyes when she joined him.
The hug went on for too long by his estimation.
Granted he wasn’t a hugger of random people.
That required a deep degree of familiarity.
Greetings were exchanged.
“Welcome! Welcome! To our St. John’s Eve festival! Drink, eat, be merry!” Deirdre said.
“Thank you for having us!” Kat smiled. “I’ve always wanted to experience the midsummer stuff in this part of the world since I watched this movie one time.”
“Don’t worry we don’t do ritual killings here. Nor do we stuff you in wicker effigies with bees… why anyone would do that, I never understood?” She regarded his uncle with a dubious expression.
“Listen, I was just telling you kids stories because you asked and what I knew about this region was from movies,” his uncle said.
“We weren’t thinking that, like, at all,” he said. “This is exactly what we were expecting from what Uncle Eron had told us.”
“So, where’s everyone? I’d like to do the introductions before,” his uncle sighed, “people start with the challenges.”
“Jonas and Thor had to take a party into the forest to put down a spawn zone.”
“Where? I’ll go right away.” His uncle’s smile vanished in an instant.
Deirdre waved a hand. “It’s okay. Just a small one. Annoying because it keeps turning into a spawn zone at the most random of times. Almost like on purpose, you know how it is?”
He nodded. “Bountiful Decade.”
“The rest are around, roaming.” She waved vaguely in all directions. “Nadras is the only one that we can easily track down. Come! I shall take you to the brewmaster! Peasants!” she addressed the crowd underneath the main food tent. “Your queen departs! But, we shall return! Until then… eat and drink!”
“Skål!” the roar echoed on their heels.
“Remember, don’t look scared,” his uncle whispered.
“We won’t,” Kat said. “You showed us a lot of pictures and video.”
“He’s an 11 and a half feet tall gray-blue troll. It can be a shock the first time in person.”
Alin shrugged.
They had tangled with more monstrous things. He figured it wouldn’t be a shock in the way his uncle seemed to think.
Though, he supposed thinking of monsters immediately when thinking of the troll was the sort of bias his uncle didn’t want them to have.
“I’ve met Vee’s cragant friend,” Kat said.
“She’s basically a much bigger human,” his uncle said. “A troll is different.”
“It’ll be fine, Uncle Eron,” he said. “We’re rangers. I think we can control our expressions in a relaxed party setting.”
“You know what…” his uncle mused. “That’s fair.”
The troll prince had his own large tent from which to distribute his passion.
Meads of many flavors.
Sweat or savory.
Sweat and savory.
Skill and magic combined to create something that couldn’t be done without them.
At least that’s what the glowing text underneath the glowing sign on the side of the front awning said.