Chapter 17
A new player on the board
Several days had passed since we started rebuilding our new Sanctuary when my pendant activated waking me from a restful sleep. I cupped the pendant and focused my energy into it. I got the tugging feeling caused by the magick of the pendant guiding me to the location of which emergency rune had been activated. I got out of bed pulled on my shirt and grabbed my trench coat which had my quiver and bow attached and I grabbed my kukris and buckled them into place. As I exited my room my brothers were finishing getting ready in the hall. We all took off, following the tug from the pendant to the front gate guard towers. As we approached I saw that Toman was already talking to the guard on duty. They both turned to address us and Toman spoke first.
“Masters, I apologize for the rude interruption to your sleep, this man got a little too jumpy and triggered the alarm without proper assessment of the situation. I have reprimanded him and I will finish out his shift.” The guard was looking down at his feet ashamed, he was young probably 17 or 18.
“That’s ok Toman, we would rather this young man be overly cautious than ignore a potential threat.” I gave Toman a knowing look saying be kinder and less militaristic. Baker and Shyft stayed to talk to Toman while I walked over to the kid to talk to him.
“So, what’s your name son?” he looked up nervously
“John, Master Wingless.” The boy answered sheepishly
“What’s with all this Master stuff? Just call me Wingless, John.” John loosened his shoulders some and seemed to get a little more comfortable with the situation.
“We all have taken to calling you and the others, Master, because you all have done so much for us and asked for nothing in return. You aren’t here to extort or force, just to help, rebuild, and educate. You all are our teachers especially when we get this place fully finished and you start taking the time to train us in magick and the ways of the three, another name we younger people gave to your teachings.” I was taken aback by such a heartwarming and candid statement.
“Well, how about this, when we are not in a professional situation just call me Wingless please.”
John smiled and nodded, “Ok, Wingless.”
I smiled back, “So what had you worried and made you press the alarm?” he straightened and became more professional.
“Ill show you up on the tower.” He led the way up one of the guard towers and pointed out into the field. “There was a person in the field and every time I tried to get another guards attention it vanished.” I looked at him seriously,
“Was it a young boy about 15 years old?” John thought about it and shook his head,
“No, it was about the same size but it moved more like a woman.” My thoughts went to Dani and to Allie, but if it was them why wouldn’t they just announce themselves. I focused my energy and sent out a ping in the direction of where John had said most of the images he had seen had been. My energy pinged back and the response was confusing. It was demonic energy but not evil.
I sent my brothers a thought through the link.
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Baker had a pensive look on his face and said, “Let’s go out there and see what it is.” He jumped off the tower to the outside of the wall and landed with ease.
Shyft and I got ready to jump and John stepped forward. “Be careful, won’t you get hurt jumping from this height?”
I looked back and said, “No, John you’ll understand when you get awoken.” And then Shyft and I jumped from the tower next to Baker on the ground. When we landed we all took off into a run and headed to the spot John had pointed out to me.
When we arrived, there was a palpable pressure that I couldn’t explain. There was nothing there but it felt like there was. I focused my energy again and checked the spot with more focus. There was a rift scar in the space that was almost invisible even to sensory but I found it. I thought a moment about what to do when I felt the scar start to open. All three of us got into position with our weapons at the ready. The rift opened and my brothers only knew where to look at it because of our link. A few more minutes passed and Doran, Jasper, and Paige came running up behind us.
“Wingless, Toman told us that you had come out here what’s going on?” I told Doran the short version and they fell into defensive position around us. Doran and Baker in the front, Paige and Shyft in the middle and Jasper and I at the back. The rift opened enough to be visible and a woman of about 21 or 22 stepped through. She was small in stature and wore glasses. As she exited the rift we all readied ourselves in case of an attack.
“Halt, who are you? What are you doing here?” Baker asked in a commanding voice. The woman looked over at us and while she looked human her eyes were almost wolf like.
She seemed to sniff the air and then she spoke. “So, you are the cause of the energy that I have been smelling. Your wards kept me from approaching so I figured if I showed myself enough, you’d eventually come to check. My name is Kira and I have been looking for you three for years.” She pointed at Baker, Shyft, and myself.
“Us? Why are you looking for us?” Shyft asked.
She walked forward with a grace and sniffed the air again. “You three are my brothers. I have been looking for the rest of us because I think together we would be more powerful. The looks on your faces tells me you have no idea what I am talking about. I think it’s too early to tell you the full truth but I will be back when you have gotten stronger and I feel you are more open to the possibility.” With that before we could ask any more questions she stepped backwards into another rift and disappeared.
“What the hell was that? Who just shows up and says you are my brothers and then leaves?” Shyft asked the questions in a rhetorical sense knowing the rest of us were just as thrown off.
“It’s got to be a trick. Some Enclavist or demon equivalent to a psychological attack.” I offered up as a possible answer to the current situation. We headed back to the compound and I stopped to talk to John.
“You were right to alert us and I want you to know that you have a good head on your shoulders. Keep up the good work.” John beamed with pride.
“Thank you, Wingless, I won’t let you down.” I shook his hand and walked with my brothers and Doran’s team back to the building. I checked my watch and we still had several hours until sun up so I decided to go clear my head. I headed past my brother’s rooms to invite them to the range, but they both declined deciding to sleep for a few more hours. I left the compound and headed to the woods. I walked the few miles to the new range that I had created for training. It was an open-air pavilion with several shooting lanes for firearms and accuracy testing and moving targets in a more open shooting area. I set myself in front of the moving targets and spent the next couple of hours shooting and training.
It was nice to let my mind go blank for a while and do what I love the most. By the time I had finished the sun was fully up and most of the people in the compound were up and getting ready to start the new day of work. I spent some time talking to people trying to find out if anyone was a teacher for children, but unfortunately no one had that background. I made a mental note that we had to get some more professionals to join to cover more of the needed positions in the Sanctuary. I walked back to the compound, took a quick shower, and then headed to my office to have a meeting with my brothers and the other masters. I had built a large desk and a round table for my office that helped with keeping up with what was going on in Sanctuary.