Now, Tennessee
“I call on the power of Jesus…”
A withered voice rang out breaking the soothing quiet of the large park next to the small school compound.
“Sumbitch! Not this again.”
“I got her last time…”
“Ugh… Mage Shield.”
A soft red glow surrounded his body.
Red.
Definitely not pink.
A person would have to be color blind to think it was the latter.
“Mrs. McCarthy this ain’t right…”
“Begone foul agent of Satan! I Smite you!”
The old woman’s bony hand shot out and a yellow orb slammed into his chest washing over him. His shield flickered but held.
“Okay… I’m bout done with this bullsh— crap. Every week, Ma’am. Same thing every week. She ain’t doing no harm to no one. Just making our kiddies better able to defend themselves. Don’t you think Jesus would be good with that? I’d like to think the good Lord wants our young’uns taken care of, don’t you?”
“He will come to you clad in a pleasing form! The better to lead the faithful astray and into damnation! I reject you devil! Smite!”
T.J. let the orb hit him. “Now, Mrs. McCarthy, you can see that it ain’t doing me no harm.” Better him than the kids currently learning their lessons in the middle of the park. Not that the tall lady would be much bothered by the old woman’s weak spells. It was more of an embarrassment for the community than anything else.
“Stop that right now, Mrs. McCarthy!” a big-boned woman came thundering up the sidewalk with a pair of young men flanking her.
“Mrs. Jessup,” T.J. nodded. “She got away again,” he stated the obvious.
“Yeah and I’m right sorry about that. It’s just… the spells… you turn your head an instant and she’s gone.”
“Unhand me, Satan’s whores!” Mrs McCarthy screeched as the burly young men picked her up and carried her back the way they had come. “This is what happens when you let the blacks and gays—”
“I’m really sorry about that,” Mrs. Jessup shook her head. “Mrs. McCarthy’s got it in her head that the tall lady’s Lucifer himself come to corrupt our children.”
“Yeah, well, I figure she’s got a lot of wrong ideas rattling around in her head,” T.J. frowned.
“Yet somehow she’s got holy power,” Mrs. Jessup raised a brow.
“Any Mage-type can cast spells. If you’re insinuating that the old racist bigot’s got a direct line to Jesus then I’d tell you to have a chat with the tall lady. What you keep letting get out from under your watch is just a delusion old woman. There ain’t nothing holy about her.”
“Maybe, but age’s messing with her mind… you might show more respect for your elders.”
“I always figured respect is earned not given and you might be right bout that… but it ain’t no excuse to come out here and throw spells around while kids are trying to learn.”
“And what are they learning from? Think about that… maybe it ain’t right to learn from that… outsider,” Mrs. Jessup stomped away before T.J. could reply.
“You notice how when people ain’t got the confidence in their own words how quick they are to scoot?” T.J. glanced at his fellow guard.
“Huh? What?”
“Caleb, your eyes ain’t looking in the right direction,” T.J. warned.
The other guard was indeed watching the group of children gathered around a tall, cloaked figure a distance away in the middle of the park.
“What I wouldn’t give to get a couple of lessons from the tall lady,” Caleb muttered before tearing his eyes away and turning around to resume his watch.
“Just lessons?”
Caleb laughed. “I wouldn’t turn down anything from her eminence and before you say nothing, I know for a fact that you and every other red-blooded American man in this town, not to mention a few women would do the same.”
T.J. shook his head. His head wanted to deny it, but his heart… “It’s the way she glows.”
“The most beautiful thing I have ever had the privilege to lay my eyes on,” Caleb agreed. “Learning magic from her would be a bonus, don’t get me wrong.”
“Them kids are going to be better than you and me before the year is out… seems unfair.”
“Ain’t got any control over the lady. She’s got her reasons. One night… just one night and I’d die happy.”
“You hornier than a two-dicked goat. Scarlett not scratching that itch no more?”
“That one is a mighty fine woman and a great fuck, but she only human. The lady’s magical.”
“It’d be easier to do our jobs if they didn’t always come out here to do their learning.” T.J. took one last look at the outdoor class before returning to his duty.
----------------------------------------
“My teacher, isn’t there a spell that can help Mrs. McCarthy?”
“My student, what is wrong with your elder can only be truly fixed by a conscious choice on her part. Only she alone can be better.” The cloaked woman’s voice seemed to twinkle with gentle, delicate musical instruments. The soft glow from her impossibly perfect face radiated outward despite the hood doing its best to hide the distraction.
“But aren’t there spells—”
“Yes, however those are not the kind that I teach, nor would I encourage them. Still, as you grow, you will make choices in your path through the world of magic. I am only a guide to the beginning of that great journey. Now, back to the lesson.”
What T.J. and Caleb saw whenever they glanced at the class was different from reality. The two guards saw a small group of children clustered around the tall, robed figure seated in the grass. The former listened attentively, while the latter spoke in a voice like music.
Instead, the children spread out in case they lost control of the spell they were about to try. Not that their teacher would let true harm occur. She could heal anything short of explosive bodily dismemberment.
There was a soft thump of an exploding fireball followed by a loud cry of pain that no one outside the teacher’s zone of magic heard.
“William,” she sighed. “Untempered eagerness is reckless and will inevitably lead to poor outcomes for the wielder.”
“Yes, my teacher… sorry,” the boy said through tears in his eyes. His hands were charred and blackened. Soot covered his entire front and the bottom half of his face.
The teacher healed his burns with a gesture. She even fixed his clothing so that it was as if a fireball hadn’t just exploded in his hands.
“Now, everyone begin.”
Faces scrunched with intense concentration.
One by one the children conjured small orbs of fire in their hands.
Not a one had spoken a word.
“There is no need to speak the word. That is the first fetter that the spires impose. What do we do with those?”
“We break them!” the children spoke in unison.
“Good, my students. When you have mastered the language of the spell you will be able to conjure it in an instant. The act of visualization that takes you seconds now will be done in a—” she snapped her long fingers creating an explosive sound.
Multiple fireballs exploded as most of the children lost their concentration.
“Well done, Jennylyn, Rupert, Emma.”
The teacher took a moment to heal the others.
Poor William, twice in minutes. He wavered but rose back to his feet and tried to bring another fireball into existence. The rest recast theirs while the boy continued to struggle.
The teacher opened her mouth to speak when the fiery orb flared into existence in the boy’s hands.
“Well done, William. Your minds must be mithril. Casting the magic in this fashion is akin to grasping a verdant eater’s tail. Now, dismiss the spell… properly.”
One by one the fireballs winked out.
Not all the children were successful.
The sky lit up with bright flashes of yellow, orange and red.
“Sit down and recover mana.”
The teacher was once again forced to heal a handful and repair their clothing. It wouldn’t do well to let the human elders know that truth of her lessons. Experience had shown her that most sapient beings were squeamish with her methods. An unavoidable instinct to protect their progeny even if it weakened them in the long run.
“True magic is not packaged in boxes as the spires would have you believe. It would have you reliant upon it. A true master is not constrained to purchasing and receiving spells. A true master can learn anything… with some restrictions of course… but perhaps one of you will rise to such heights that you will discover a way to take what is rightfully ours.”
“You haven’t, my teacher?” William said.
“Not yet, my student. Mastering magic is the endeavor of multiple lifetimes. I have lived long and know much, but what I don’t know is the most important thing of all.”
A hand shot up.
“Yes, Emma.”
“What don’t you know?”
“Many things. Too many to regale you with in our allotted time for this lesson.”
“You said that we can learn any spell, but then you said we can’t?” Rupert’s face twisted in confusion.
“The class system cages us as much as it supposedly gives us power. As you’ve learned, specialization strengthens you in one path while weakening you in others and perhaps barring the way down others completely. You cannot learn from two antithetical ways. Of course there are exceptions, however rare and difficult they are to achieve.”
“Like what?”
“That, I cannot teach. It is for the individual practitioner to discover.” She stared into the sky, noted the sun’s position and promptly pushed some of her own mana into the children. It was a small matter. Akin to a few drops from a massive lake. “Now, what spell shall we try next?”
“Lightning Bolt!”
“Withering Lash!”
“Conjure Food: Ice Cream Sundae!”
“You’re such a child, Rand. Grow up!” Emma snapped.
Snickers.
“Fine, then we should try Sticky Glob,” Rand said.
“So you can put it in my hair again?”
“Emma, Rand. That’s enough,” the teacher’s tone was gentle yet firm. “How about we try Mage Hand. I’d like to see the results of your home practice.”
The children cast their spells.
Rand promptly sent a rude gesture with the ethereal hand at Emma’s back.
The teacher had always found it interesting that the young of different sapients were much alike. Then again they weren’t that different if the capacity to interbreed existed. At least when it came to humans and her kind.
She idly mused if the same could be said of the cragants.
It was a shame that the dominion had always kept a tight grasp on the giant humanoids’ movement through her home world. They briefly set foot on her world only to travel to a different world where the dominion continued its pointless conquests. Too brief to study. She would’ve liked to learn more about them.
Knowledge and magic were the two things that she held in her soul.
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The cost to travel to this untouched world had been immense, but it had been worth it.
Now, she could shape an entire peoples’ understanding of magic.
If only there weren’t so many different competitors out there.
Soon she could take another step toward the well-deserved destruction of one of them.
Kin.
Her face twitched. The slightest of movement to show how much that one disgusted her.
That one was a true perversion of her kind.
Still, it wasn’t her way to stain her hands unless absolutely necessary.
Why bother after all?
This world had its own defenders.
She’d simply point one in the right direction.
----------------------------------------
“Stupid Emma and her stupid face always thinking she’s better than me!” Rand spat.
“Gross!” Jennylyn said. “Anyways, what’s your problem with her? She’s nice. Right, Cammi?”
Three chubby-cheeked faces turned to the fourth expectantly with all the gravitas of mathematicians about to learn whether or not they were about to discover an entirely new number hitherto unknown to mankind.
The girl in question adjusted her glasses and rolled her eyes. “Emma helped me figure out the spell orb, so she’s okay with me,” Cammi gave the others a thumbs up.
Rand made a disgusted noise. “That’s just cause you’re girls and everyone knows you stick together. Anything to put a man down,” he nodded with all the assurance of a 10 year old that thought he knew everything. “Rupes agrees… right, Rupes.”
Rupert sighed. “Objectively speaking, Emma isn’t stupid. She’s like the number one student—”
“Yeah, just cause she kisses the teacher’s ass.”
“Uh oh! You said a bad word. I’m telling the teacher,” Jennyln laughed.
“Yeah, Ms. Teacher said that…” Cammi cleared her throat to adopt a more refined, stately tone, “Profanity is the harbor of the small-minded. The small-minded have no place traveling the paths of magic.”
“Snitches,” Rand scoffed. “All I’m saying is that Emma shouldn’t think she’s better than me— us. It’s not cool.”
“But… she doesn’t,” Rupert frowned.
“She’s always trying to raise her hand first to answer all the questions and she’s always making me— us look bad when we get an answer wrong and she just jumps in, like, she already knew the answer, but she let us get it wrong just so she could jump in and make herself look better,” Rand said in one breath.
“You’re the stupid face,” Jennylyn rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, Rand. What you said literally doesn’t make sense. There were at least two contradictions,” Cammi said.
“Whatever. Like, I’ll listen to you two snitches and nerds.”
Three of the children bickered and called each other names for a couple of blocks. The fourth one merely sighed and tried not to think about how pretty one of the other three looked when she stuck her tongue out and made that face.
Rupert considered asking his older brother about how one knew when they liked someone. He’d be asking for a ‘friend’ of course. Yeah, for a friend because he suspected that Rand’s dislike of Emma was probably the opposite.
“You talk about her a lot,” Rupert mused.
Rand rounded on him with narrowed eyes. “What you trying to say?”
“Nothing… just… you’re always talking about Emma,” he shrugged.
“Rupert’s right!” Cammi beamed as she patted Rupert on the arm.
He decided than that he would never wash that arm again.
Okay.
Maybe not never.
At least a few days.
His mom and dad would notice.
Could he ask Ms. Teacher for a spell to somehow preserve his arm’s state without it getting gross and smelly?
No.
He decided that probably fell under frivolous use of their arcane might.
Then again, she always encouraged experimentation.
“Rupes? You okay,” Rand blinked.
“Yeah, what?”
“You spaced out? Oh, was it a vision?” Cammi said. “I try to get visions, but nothing so far.”
Jennylyn gave Rupert a knowing look and giggle. “Keep trying, girl! It’d be so awesome if you could become a seer or an oracle!”
“I know, right!” Cammi’s pigtails bounced along with her head as she nodded.
Rupert felt his face get hot while Rand scrutinized him.
“OMG! He’s turning red,” Jennylyn snickered under her breath.
“What’d you say?” Cammi said.
“Nothing! She didn’t say nothing! I mean— homework! I mean, what do you guys think of our homework!” Rupert said.
“I can’t wait to try it out!” Cammi said.
Jennylyn gave Rupert a deliberate, knowing look as if to say, I’ll let you loose… this time. “It’s a little scary,” she said.
“PFFTTT!”
“Ugh… gross, Rand. You’re the worse,” Jennylyn wiped the spittle off her cheek.
“Er… sorry, that wasn’t on purpose,” Rand grimaced.
“Well, since you think you’re number 1, which you aren’t, since everyone knows it’s Emma, what’re you going to do for the assignment?”
“Well, Jennylyn, I’m not going to tell you since you’re a snitch and you’ll probably tell Emma,” Rand crossed his arms triumphantly.
“I’m going to use Play-Doh. Do you think that’s a good idea, Cammi?” Rupert ventured nervously.
“Oh…” Cammi adjusted her glasses, “yeah! That’s a great idea! Ms. Teacher said that for now the simpler the physical form the easier it’ll be to bind the summoned spirit into it. I’ll try Play-Doh too!”
“Lame,” Rand snorted.
Several beats passed.
“And what are you going to use? Your superhero toys?” Jennylyn scoffed.
“No— yes… and they’re not toys.”
“Oh, sorry. Action figures,” she rolled her eyes.
“I don’t think that’ll work,” Cammi said.
“Shut up! You’re stupid!”
Rupert frowned at Rand and took a half-step toward him.
“You’re stupid!” Cammi fired back. “Otherwise you’d remember what Ms. Teacher said.”
“Uh…”
“She only taught us how to summon the simplest of spirits from the closest plane to existence.” She sighed at the uncomprehending look on Rand’s face. “Simple forms! Ugh!” she stomped her foot. “Simple forms and we have to shape them ourselves or it won’t work.”
“Action figures won’t work… stupid!” Jennylyn added.
The anger on Rand’s face slowly turned into the excitement that one could only get after coming up with an idea that they thought was genius.
“Oh no—” Jennylyn began.
“Shit!” Rand said.
“And there he goes… I don’t even—”
“I can make a tiny poo guy!”
“Why?” Rupert groaned.
“It’s not against the rules. Ms. Teacher didn’t say anything about what we could make them out of,” Rand forged ahead. Oblivious to the mingled looks of disgust and exasperation on his friends’ faces. “Then when I bring it to class tomorrow. It’ll accidentally jump on Emma’s head and accidentally smear itself on her hair and face.”
“That’s gross,” Cammi said.
“Even for you,” Jennylyn shook her head.
“Only girls would be too grossed out to explore the true paths of magic,” Rand said smugly.
“So, you’re gonna just what? Grab your shit and sculpt a small man out of it?” Jennylyn said.
Rand shrugged. “Or a dog’s, a cat’s, whatever?”
“You’ll take your hands and grab shit?” Jennylyn continued.
“I’ll wear gloves.”
“But the smell?” Rupert said.
“A mask.” Rand eyed them like they were the ones talking about using excrement to house a tiny summoned spirit. “We’ve dissected all different kinds of animals and you’re grossed out by shit. The thing that comes out of our asses everyday! This is why I should be the top student. Only I’m willing to get my hands dirty for the sake of my path.”
“Poop-o-mancer?” Cammi eyed him like he was a slimy worm.
“You two better watch your tone or you might get a little visit from my shit golem,” Rand smirked.
“C’mon, Cams. Boys are gross. Let’s go.” Jennylyn took her friend’s hand and power-walked away.
Rupert sighed as he waved at the two girls as they went on ahead.
“Rupes, it’s genius,” Rand said.
“No. It really isn’t. Ms. Teacher will turn you into a pig… like she did to Old Man John.” Rupert shuddered at the memory. Not that the pervy old drunk didn’t have it coming. Plus, it hadn’t been permanent. Just a few days.
“What?” Rand dismissed Rupert’s concern immediately. “No she won’t. It’s totally different. Old Man John was running around with his dick flapping around while trying to grab peoples’ asses. Ms. Teacher probably only bothered cause he was stupid enough to try to run up to her. This is different. It’s experimentation and magic.”
Rupert watched his friend clench a fist and shake it to sky for some reason.
“It won’t work,” he said after a few moments of thought. “Emma’s the best for a reason. You won’t catch her off guard. She’ll get a mage shield up in an instant to block your shitman. And then Ms. Teacher will punish you. If you’re lucky it’ll only be time out. But, Rand, she might expel you for this. Or she’ll make your shitman do it’s thing on your face.”
“Then that is my sacrifice,” Rand intoned. “I can’t be afraid to fail, like Ms. Teacher always says. To advance on my path is to stumble. All that matters is that I rise and continue the journey. She’ll understand.”
“And your path is summoning poo elementals?” Rupert tried.
“No way!” Rand scoffed. “Unless…”
Rupert groaned.
“Yeah… why not? No one would want to fight a poop elemental. While they’re all grossed out and distracted that’s when I nail them,” Rand nodded.
“Please think about this,” Rupert resumed walking.
“C’mon, Rupes, I might need your help. I’ve got an idea. A smaller shit man within the first shit man. Emma will drop her shield after the first one fails only for the second to burst out!” Rand cackled.
“Noooo… that’s an even worse idea,” Rupert ran a hand through his hair.
“It’s perfect. Like that movie you love so much. I’ll call the technique, Shitception!”
Rupert was a boy and yet, he was a traitor to his kind.
For at this moment he had to agree with Jennylyn’s cruel and perhaps unfair assessment.
Boys were, indeed, gross.
----------------------------------------
Cal drove the RV up to the barricade with one hand held out the open window.
Men and women with guns were never a threat but it would’ve made things harder to get into the town if shooting broke out.
“It’s lightly defended,” Nila said.
“What that?” the little guy said as he stood on her lap to get a better look.
“.50 Cal machine gun,” she replied.
“You’re thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Dream elf lady,” she nodded sagely. “Scans?”
“Just a light a touch. I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression. Nothing I’d consider worrisome. No duress or mental control as far as I can tell.”
“That’s good. Just a quiet mountain valley town. Hopefully, they aren’t racist.”
Cal’s eyes narrowed. “Mildly… low diversity… but I’m happy to note there is no slavery… a few dozen virulent racists, but they’re mostly keep it in check because the majority of the people are more concerned about putting on an organized front against the monsters and raiding types.”
“Cannibals?”
“None.”
“Zalthyss church?”
“Also none.”
“Undead?”
“Nope.”
“Skin monsters?”
“No— what?”
“You know… that one Eron fought a long time ago. He was telling one of the junior rangers classes about it. I happened to be sitting in as a favor to your sister. She didn’t want him to say anything that was too scarring.”
“And he— and you—” Cal shook his head. “You guys thought the skin monster was an okay story for the kids?”
“Well, I made sure that he didn’t go into detail about the—” she covered the little guy’s ears, “about the little boy being the skin monster the whole time.”
“I guess it’s better than the whole Santa demon, monster, thing, whatever,” he sighed. “Couldn’t he have talked about flying or something.”
“Rayna wanted the kids to learn some of the realities of what they could face out there. Kind of like a scared straight thing. She’s hoping most of them decide to take a non-combat route as their primary.”
“That is the ideal.”
Cal slowed the RV to a halt a few feet in front of the barricade.
It was a positive mark on the armed guards’ behalf that their weapons weren’t pointed at them.
“Um… alright, I ain’t gonna sugarcoat it, but what in the hells are you doin’ out in these parts?” the lead guard, a scar-faced woman drawled.
“You don’t get a lot of visitors?”
“No sir, we most definitely do not. Not the least bit a family drivin’ up in an old camper like it were ten, fifteen years ago. So, please don’t take no offense to my brusque tone, but what in the hells are you doin’ out in these parts?”
“Well… it’s just as you see,” Cal smiled. “My family and I are on vacation and we—” he noticed the woman glance down at her wrist to the small clear diamond set in a watch band, “got a dream message from a very tall lady. She might’ve been glowing, big eyes, long, knife-shaped ears. Impossibly beautiful. So on and so forth. Anyways, I hope I’m not wrong, but I think she might’ve been inviting us here. Sound familiar?”
Nila gaped at him.
He shrugged.
It was terrible opsec but he had a good feeling about it.
Notably, the diamond on the guard’s wrist remained clear as she had glanced back and forth from it to him.
“Listen, we mean you no harm, we come in peace… and such, so—”
“Just hang on a sec, sir. I’ll be right back.”
The guard hurried to the other side of the barricade disappearing into the gatehouse.
“What the hell was that?” Nila hissed.
“Well… it was an invitation and everyone agreed that it didn’t seem hostile.”
“Seem being the operative word.”
“I figured since everything with the people in this town seemed okay that we could just cut straight to the important stuff. We meet this elf lady, hopefully get some good info on the Vitiator annnndddd get back to our vacation. It’s over halfway through November and we have to get back to ‘real life’ after the new year.”
“Okay, but if they start shooting, I swear…” Nila shook her fist.
“Mom, no swear, bad,” the little guy gazed at her with grave disappointment.
“Ha!”
The guard came back with a map.
“Go to the motel and wait to be contacted.”
She had helpfully drawn arrows and circled the location.
“It’s free.”
“We can pay.”
“Nah, the lady said so, so’s you ain’t got to pay. Listen up. Don’t go exploring around until you’re contacted. We’ll be keeping an eye on you. Just follow instructions and we ain’t gonna have no problems. Got that?”
“Understood. Thank you and have a nice day!” he smiled.
The guard stared at him with too-wide eyes but nodded and managed a strained smile directed toward Nila and the little guy.
“See,” he said after they entered the town.
“You can’t gloat until after we don’t get attacked in some shoddy motel. I’m going to get into my armor,” Nila sighed as she plopped the little guy on Cal’s lap and headed to the back.