Stupid orb. Stupid, crazy, whiny, BRILLIANT ORB! Oh so many ideas, so little time!
I knew the Ripple was coming soon, probably today, and I could handle it, but my idiot knowledge obsessed brain had lost track of time. The Ripple brings change, pure, unadulterated Change. My beasts’ bonds probably won’t stick if I can’t get the animals here and shielded. Also, I really didn’t know if I could shield them all.
Gungnir has been tested to show that it can absorb the raw energy of a dying deity of Chaos, but Svalinn hasn’t been tested on anything in that realm yet. All of my mineral and nature experiments are here in the cavern, so I won’t lose them like last time.
“Gungnir! You’re on guard duty! Stay no more than three-feet away from me, and make sure that the Ripple doesn’t kill me. Absorb as much raw Chaos as you can and see if you can solidify it if at all possible. Also, summon all of the beasts that you can reach to the cavern and we’ll see if we can shield some of them too. We might end up saying goodbye to Norn and Gator . . “
“Jaws! His name is Jaws!” Gungnir interrupted.
“That’s a stupid name. Jaws is a shark movie . . “
“So? You said I could name it, and since we aren’t going to the ocean anytime soon - WHERE WE WOULD RULE - I’m naming him Jaws.”
“Fine, we may have to say goodbye to Norn, Jaws and Kong for now because we still have Ripple number seven to contend with after this one,” I said. “And fighting them twice to dominate them is a total pain.”
“They’re here!” Gungnir sang in my head while outwardly playing its own rendition of ‘Happy Birthday to Me’. A minor stampede of animal flesh crowded inside the cavern, which I immediately started on expanding. Kong was carrying the snake chimera, John, on his back while Pups 1 through 8 ran between his legs before darting to lounge around the petrified Spot.
“Hey, where’s the rest of them?” My saddened orb pouted, zipping around the disorganized zoo. Three eagle-sized crows flew through the cavern door. “Norn!” Gungnir screamed, joining the three birds in flight.
“What? What are you . . “
“Oh yeah, forgot to tell ya. Norn figured out how to split up into smaller versions of himself,” Gungnir said. “Smaller and faster and can cover more ground, and when they spot big prey, they combine back to giant Norn!”
Looking closer, I saw that the (comparatively) small birds actually were smaller versions of my first bonded beast. Magic is fucking cool.
“The tree is consumed, the seed set adrift.”
“Sunder the bonds, shatter your chains.”
“Rise from my fall, grasp what you will.”
******
The intense warping of reality never gets old. Every living thing in that cavern, except for me, shuddered and changed as each wave of the Chaos coursed through the cavern. Seeing the strange oily slick energy getting eaten by Gungnir did not take away from the wonder of watching REALITY RIPPLE!
I can’t even pretend to guess what the first part of that message meant. What seed? Which tree? Is it a hallucination, or a message from God? Gods? Fate? Eh, who knows.
Gungnir’s thoughts consisted of insane ranting along the lines of ‘loving this,’ and, ‘gimme more!’ and ‘oooo baby!’ Stupid orb, we’re all about to die on the razor’s edge of reality and my sentient weapon is basically having an orgasm from shielding me from the incoming waves of pure Chaos. What really made this experience intense was how I could still think of stupid questions when all of the mutated creatures were CURRENTLY in the process of mutating AGAIN!
My eyes were wider than dinner plates.
[Shit. Shit! Shiiiiiit.]
The first mini-Ripple lit up every runed-crystal I had installed in the walls turning the cavern into a warehouse rave. The raging streaks of the magical rainbow put the Los Angeles nightclubs to shame. And while I really wanted to see the results of my experiments (the precious material’s reactions to Chaos), Kong’s and Norn’s blood curdling screams were deafening, almost loud enough to crack the stone floor. Sitting still was a real bad idea. Both oversized creatures sprouted tendrils of magic crackling through them, starting from their core or heart and writhing in and out of random parts, powerful enough that I could see flickers of their insides lighting up like an x-ray.
[Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!] I thought, taking a few quick steps back towards my immature tree garden while snatching Gungnir out of the air. The rest of the otherworldly message was clear enough, even for me. I knew what “shatter your chains” meant, and it definitely wasn’t intended for me. The second mini-Ripple hit within a second after the first, stone chips flying off of Spot as cracks ran down his petrified back. The eight fox-wolves ran around Spot’s still prone form, howling and yelping while inhuman notes joined their symphony. I kept inching back towards the exit tunnel, gripping Gungnir and readying my Sorcery for a fight.
The third mini-wave came right after the second, somehow more powerful in its meaning and strength as it echoed the message. I felt every warped animal in that moment start to fight the mental bond I had constructed in their beings. That pure, innocent desire to be free, intrinsic to all lifeforms, fought the magical hold I had carved in the animals’ skulls and souls.
Kong’s wide eyes narrowed at me, one furry hand gripping his ax, veins pulsing in rage as his other hand clawed at his head, as if ripping out the mental chains. He took a menacing step towards me. Norn’s three split bodies darted around the cavern screeching and chasing the lights while the chimera John began spraying web at the fox-wolves and Norn.
SNAP!
The chains of induced servitude via Flesh Sorcery shattered on every bonded, under the creatures' will to be free as they were bolstered by the cry of a dead god, realms away. The sound of the bond breaking was unnatural, shattering metal combined with breaking bone, but all of it completely in my head. The third wave gave their will the strength to fight the weakened bonds. My frantic thoughts were knocked aside by the incoming pain of the disintegrated mental bonds which knocked me on my ass.
“Get up!” Gungnir screamed at me. “Go, go, go, go!” Duh, no shit. As if staying in the cavern full of recently freed mutant magical creatures was a good idea.
I tried to mentally respond through our link with my usual sarcasm, but the stabbing pain was too much for that function to work. Rolling over, I began to crawl through the dirt as Gungnir distracted the animals by blasting them with jets of water or balls of hardened dirt.
Reaching the entrance to the tunnel, I shouted back over my shoulder, “Turn off the generator!”, winced at the pain, then used my Sorcery to conjure water with dirt all around me to make mud and made it slide me across the tunnel. The impromptu, magically assisted mudslide proved to be an effective getaway method as I slid all the way to the World Tree bolthole. Gungnir flew right behind me and filled the tunnel with solid stone, sealing the underground entrance.
“Pain block, you idiot!” Gungnir snapped at me. “Put one in, this ain’t the time to be weak.”
“Fuck you!” I snarled right back, even though it was right. Now was not the time to screw around. I used Flesh Sorcery to make it so. A small flex of my Earth and Water Sorcery instantly cleaned myself off. I looked around the Under-Tree bolthole for a moment, Kong’s roars were still audible, even from here.
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“All my babies!” Gungnir’s whining interrupted what was the start of my regaining my bearings. “This shit is just gonna happen again in a week! Fuckin’ useless waste of a Chaos deity, screwing up my bindings and freeing my pets.”
“Yeah . . .” I muttered with a deep sigh. “Maybe bonded beasts weren’t the way to go.”
“But, but, but, they’re mine, I mean, ours! Right?”
“Yes, you miserable floating orb.” I growled. “But obviously, raw Chaos won’t sit still and let us control beasts. It may just keep breaking the bonds, which is too much work to do over and over. The beast army plan is just going to have to wait until after the Ripples are gone. We’ve hopefully only got one wave more to get through and then we can go full tilt down that path.”
Gungnir went silent. “What?” I asked.
“No more pets?” The whining tone was now way overdone.
“Not until the next wave is over! I’m not doing this again just to have it undone!” I yelled. “Didn’t you see Kong?! One second of freedom with that giant fucking ax and I’m going to be meat paste and you’re going to be a damn pinball!”
The orb sunk lower, conjuring small drops of water that fell like tears. “Knock it off,” I said, feeling a little bad, but just a tiny bit. “We’ll get them back when we can and you can name all the new ones.” I knew I was going to regret it, but I was too irritated to argue.
The response of joy was not verbal but luminescent, blinding even. “Dude! Stop!” I yelled, turning my head to avoid the blinding joy. “Seriously, go away. You know what? Go ahead and let all of them out of the cavern, we don’t want them eating each other or fucking with Spot.”
Gungnir shot off like a rocket, screeching with happiness. I shouted down our mental link as it thinned with the rapidly increasing distance, [Make sure the main generator is off, the trees are fine, the gems are ok and that the cavern is sealed when they’re gone!].
Sometimes I feel like the crotchety dad yelling at a teenager. Today was definitely not going the way I had hoped it would. The suddenness of the Ripple arriving wrecked my plan of having Gungnir shield me and the animals from the wave, but the nature of it didn’t surprise me one bit. Chaos seems to be all about breaking limits. If we weren’t mostly gone from this planet, the Ripple really would have given humanity as a whole the boost it needed to be far more than what we have been for thousands of years. The downside obviously is that the darker half of human nature would also have been set free.
I can’t imagine people like Stalin or Mao with the magical ability to actually make their dreams a reality.
Shuddering at the darker thoughts, I walked the rest of the way down the tunnel to the root of my World Tree Sapling and put my hand on it, sending my Nature Sorcery through its veins and heartwood and reaching up into the core of the upper trunk.
“Hey babe,” I said softly, the soft tendrils of my magic stopping just short of the seed orb that was Elizabeth. “Still don’t know how you’re doing in there, but damn I miss you.”
My other hand wiped away a sliver of a tear while my magic examined the feed of power connecting the Tree to the Under-Tree bolthole generator. “I’m here whenever you’re done doing whatever the hell it is you’re doing. This generator should keep your (hopefully) temporary home strong and healthy.”
The World Tree’s vibrant ocean of power vibrated at its usual pace, unconcerned for my worries.
I didn’t care if she responded but my small smile drooped a little. “Shit, it’s definitely more magic than I need, but I’m guessing that a piece of Yggdrasil can handle it.”
I stood there for ten minutes, examining everything and just wishing there was something I could do to help. What I would give for a way to communicate with her. I could see her soul or her form, but it was encased in a shell of power that was simply beyond me; a condensed star’s worth of energy covered her like a second skin rebuffing all contact, but radiating a strange sense of calm potential and peace.
Music heralded the return of Gungnir, pulling me out of my sad trance. The stupid orb was audibly and mentally playing the soft melody of “Wait for You” by Elliot Yamin and it made me want to commit murder. “I swear to Chaos . . .” I growled, whipping around.
“What?” Gungnir said, pulsing soft pink and purple light to show sadness. It hard stopped as it saw I had conjured a stone bat to knock it into next week, “I can’t believe you made me let them go, I mean, a whole week before we can get them back? What’s that about?”
******
Planet Ulsahrin - Alpha Centauri Outer Rim World
“Captain!” Jorgan rumbled, his deep voice cutting through the noise of the gathered Centauri. The staggering physique and commanding presence of Centauri Titan simply wasn’t enough.
Reeanth’s cold eyes didn’t shift from the object of her desire, endlessly searching the vast depths of the flowing liquid surface of the Gate. She remembered her grandfather telling her about discovering the old thing buried in their family’s abandoned ruins, and how frustrated the old retired space wizard was when he couldn’t get it to work.
Any gate outside the Union’s control was simply beyond valuable, from smuggling goods to sneaking troops anywhere in the universe. The gray stone structure was anything but ordinary, even though it looked like a primitive human’s attempt at making a gate. The finest weapons of the Centauri Empire couldn’t scratch it. Reeanth knew because she’s tried, several times.
Unbidden, her right hand went to her left shoulder, rubbing the long scar that traced from her collarbone to her elbow, reminding her of the last time she tried to put a dent in this gate with her elder brother’s top-of-the-line plasma knife.
All gates are built and carefully accounted for by the Integrated Teleporters Union, but not this one. This one was opportunity - pure, unregulated opportunity. The only problem was . . . this ancient gate only went to one place. The runes were locked by a power greater than hers to the coordinates of a planet long thought to be lost to the ravages of history. The runes lining the outer ring of archaic sigils hadn’t been lit for thousands of years, judging by the dust encrusting the sharp lines of the runes, but they had come to life a couple of weeks ago allowing Reeanth’s team to explore the other side.
“Yes Sergeant?” She said at last, staring at the shifting but contained void in the gate, her teeth grinding at the memory of the primitive sorcerer with far too much power.
“We’ve gathered the weapons you’ve asked for, and the twins are eager to put the sorcerer in his place,” Jorgan rumbled, his voice sounding deeper than thunder. “As an extra precaution, we have a backup squad as well, all vetted by the family. I too, am eager for this conflict.”
Reeanth took a deep breath, sorting through her thoughts. “Will it even work?” Wizards tend to be a poor test as weapons against Sorcerers, but we cannot chance using Voidling weapons yet. That’s our ace in the hole for the Hegemony.”
“They worked well enough against the dragon half-breeds and all they do is spit magic.” Jorgan grinned, holding a large double-sided ax with runes carved along the blade and handle. “I even had the armorers edge one blade with platinum just in case I got the chance to use it. Cost me most of my inheritance.”
He tossed it in the air. The ax hummed as it flipped twice before coming down and being caught by one giant hand. “I think the twins love their new toys.” He gestured behind him to where Gerone and Gerome were tossing silvery blades back and forth like an old Earth circus.
“Why are we going back to Earth?” Gerome asked, adding another blade to the mix. “Yes, what does the backwards land offer to the great Centauri Empire?” Gerone clarified, adding yet another knife to the performance.
Reeanth turned her head towards the twins and answered. “Chaos.”
Jorgan almost dropped his ax in surprise.
“Do you think, could it be true?” He stuttered.
Reeanth grinned. “Yes. Areas that were previously devoid of magic and Chaos radically change in strange and new ways when they are brought back to it, but it rarely happens. Almost as rare as a dying god. There is a chance that we could find shards of Chaos or new and powerful MAGIK.”
“We could be Sorcerers!” Jorgan roared, veins popping out of his massive arms, gripping the ax hard enough to almost bend the magically enhanced steel. Arcs of golden lightning played across the black nano-suit.
“Calm yourself.” Reeanth cut in, her cold voice putting a lid on her team’s excitement. “The mana levels are almost dense enough for our race to survive on the surface for extended periods of time, but we could beat the other heavy hitters to Earth if we take enough mana-gathering formations in our suits.”
“But what about the Ripples?” Gerone asked. “Yes, what will that do to us?” Gerome finished.
Jorgan grumbled, “Not much. It may make our souls a bit stronger, but it has the greatest effect on those untouched by magik, such as the primitives we rescued from Earth. Our souls have already been altered by power. Not many have the agency to truly grasp for power like the Sorcerer, and even fewer manage to survive once they do have it.”
“But what if he was our friend?” Gerome asked. “And what if we helped each other?” Gerone finished. “We could help each other,” they both said in sync.
“Stop fucking doing that!” Jorgan yelled at them, pounding the butt of his ax into the ground. “It’s creepy enough that you’re twins and constantly in sync, but it’s worse that you never truly separated your mental bond from birth.” He turned to Reeanth. “I’m getting food, Captain.” Then stomped off muttering to himself, “Fucking twin magic, disgusting. No clue how to have an original thought or stand on your own two feet.”
The twins raced after him up the stairs out of the ruin’s basement, “Awww, is the big man lonely?” Gerone teased. “Can’t find a woman big enough for the giant?” Gerome chimed in.
Reeanth turned back to the gate, ignoring her subordinates. They were the best team she’d ever had, the only team really. Wizards tended to be raised in teams per the order of the Wizard Most High of the Centauri Empire. This practice allows them to form powerful close-knit teams with enough variation to handle any situation. The only thing they hadn’t counted on was the damn Sorcerer. Earth just opened up. There shouldn’t be powerful magic users of any kind still living there.
Rubbing her jaw to relieve the tension of gritting her teeth, she thought to herself that maybe the twins did have an original thought for once. What if they worked with the Sorcerer, instead of the usual tactics. Which of course was grinding all opposition to dust beneath the inexorable might of the Empire.
If only she could get this damn gate to work again! Everything had been tried, from rearranging the runic coordinates with sigil addition spokes to pouring pure mana into the control base. Stepping forward, she pulled off her glove and traced some runes on the side with her bare hand.
“Dimensional settings, mana density, number of passengers, energy levels, but no real filters for the space folding set . . .” She muttered to herself. “If grandfather couldn’t figure it out, then I don’t have a chance in Hell.” The gate’s runes along the circular frame began to softly glow and gradually get brighter as the voices of her team faded in the distance. Reeanth tried to pull her hand back from the frame of the gate but was stuck fast as the liquid center changed to show another area of Earth instead of the pitch blackness of the void from just a minute ago.
“No dammit! Let me go!” She yelled, pumping mana into the runes of her combat suit, bolstering her strength and fortifying her boot’s grip on the earth beneath her. Her other hand was gripping the stuck arm, pulling with all her might. “Jorgan! Twins! Get your ass back here!” She screamed as the gate sucked her in and winked off.