“We should close that Dark Breach, too,” I said quietly. Because the Kryzaniak ancestors would be wanting to find the ones who had killed their descendants and easy growth of power, and then kill the descendants of such people, as well.
Sama’s eight-canine smile flashed. “Perhaps. It’s also a rapidly-respawning source of Karma of the undead variety.”
I blinked. “That... is very true?” I had to admit, although keeping Planar Breaches open was not a good idea, especially with the power of what was on the other side doing that. If the Kryzaniak ancestors wanted to investigate, however, it was a good way to vivisize them and remove them as a threat forever.
“Closest place otherwise is going to the Aztec temples, or Egypt, maybe the Andes if you’re really a masochist.” I knew Sama hadn’t ignored the risk of the dead, but also that she was not as concerned about them as she would be Beasts, which would probably be much to their surprise.
The phone on the desk rang. It was an old design, actually had the rotary wheel there if you cared to use it, although there were buttons on the base. Sama raised her eyebrows and picked it up. “Yes?” she asked in Egolve’s voice.
“Great Aunt, it is Trent. I tried to reach you earlier...” the lawyer began breathlessly.
Sama smiled, and held the phone out to me.
“Mr. Kryzaniak.” The urgent breathing on the other end of the phone went abruptly still. “Your great aunt and the rest of your family cannot come to the phone. However, there are five children, aged two to twelve, who are sitting unconscious down in the reading room at this moment. You might be interested in their health and well-being?”
He recognized my voice, of course. It was totally singular, and couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else. He also realized he was suddenly in some very important negotiations. “What do you want?” he asked slowly, dread in his voice.
“You will have to be making me a promise, Mr. Kyrzaniak, and it’s not one you’re going to be able to break. It will bury the heritage of your family, making sure you never mention them again, nor who is responsible for their deaths. It also means your legal career is over, and you’re going to devote the rest of your life to seeing that those kids do not end up like their parents. You will also be doing everything in your power to see that they are Awakened to Light Magic, not any of the Elements of Dark Magic.
“If you are willing to do that, Trent, tell me now.”
There was only a momentary pause, and then a long sigh of defeat. “I am willing,” he whispered, and the Geas took hold.
“Very good, Trent. Here are your directions.
“The children will be found sleeping in the back of a van parked by the old barn. With them will be a briefcase filled with ten million dollars cash taken from your Family’s personal safe. It should be more than enough to see to their education and needs.
“You will move to Austin, Texas. Soon enough the Lighthouse there will have an improved Awakening Stone which can Awaken any user to the Light Element.
“When they come of age, you will take them to that Stone and Awaken them to the Light. Furthermore, you will raise them in a forthright and righteous manner, not like you and your siblings were raised. If you need help, I’m sure there are many men and women who would be willing to help you. I suggest preparing them for lives as doctors and nurses, but if they wish to join the military as a career, that would also be fine.
“Do you understand these conditions, Trent Kryzaniak?”
His sigh was deep. “They are... unexpectedly merciful, Lady Fae. I will be taking a personal flight immediately, and be there within two hours.”
“Godspeed, Mr. Kryzaniak.” Sama pressed the receiver down, and took the phone from me before replacing it.
“Should have no problem cleaning up and torching the place before then,” Sama mused, her eyes having never left the screens in front of her. “There’s at least three places here that need to be completely vivisized.”
“That does not surprise me in the slightest,” I admitted.
“Let’s get with the questioning, I’ll have the boys step and fetching as you get Answers.”
“On it.”
------
It was burning pretty handily now, some Fire Elementals guiding the destruction of everything artificial, Earth Magic burying and filling in everything underground, and a whole lot of whiteness permeating everything as vivic energy slowly ate away all the Dark Magic that had long seeped into the soil here.
The flames were remarkably white, and the trees were crumbling to ash with great speed, not even having the chance to collapse as they literally fell apart. The Fire Elementals were dancing happily as they went about their task of clearing out every contaminated plant and place in the vicinity.
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The family graveyard, used as the centerpoint of the more Ritualistic Summonings of their ancestors, was still on vivic fire, and likely would be for most of a day or two. The headstones and moss-covered tombs and sepulchers were all crumbling as the Dark Magic in the soil burned mistily.
Trent the lawyer would likely just have the pilot fly over and jump out the door.
Two twenty-foot-square cloths heaped up artfully with Stuff shrank down to images on the cotton, and were rolled up quickly and smoothly with magic. We retreated into the forest to get away from the rapidly increasing Veil-strengthening going on here, and I brought us all home quickly.
A bunch of dead Shadowtail Drake was going into the mess hall, with Sama herself going to be cooking it up for everyone in the compound to enjoy, after she got the right supplemental stuff that would clean the Dark Magic out of it.
I am going to have to make a Purifying Light for the kitchens, I mused, spinning up the plans for one and putting it out there for the KIA boys as a project. It was this supplemental, downtime utility use of Wizardry that everyone appreciated the most. Not everything had to be about fighting and combat, although getting stronger that way certainly helped.
I brought the Tapestries’ loads back up in one of the storehouses, and specialists promptly started scrambling over all of it. There were books and magical items of all kinds, money and antiques and mementos with special backgrounds, family histories, and of course, all the records, both financial and personal, that we’d been able to cart off.
There were already news shots and photos of the compound burning out in the forest there, but the Hunters and foresters dispatched to investigate weren’t trying to fight or contain the blaze after a quick and quiet phone call from Sama to the local guild. They’d quickly been able to ascertain that yes, there was a lot of Dark Magic in those woods, and moreso that the Fire was definitely eating it up happily.
The van with the kids was naturally gone by then. Sama had Trent’s phone number, and contacts for him to use. Also, there was some reaction from the consortium of Families arrayed against us at both his disappearance and the abrupt removal of the Kryzaniaks from the realm of useful tools... possibly along with proof of their prior business dealings. Who might have that proof now, one wonders?
The fact we could travel across the country was actually not that well-known, because the interactions of the Vampire’s Veil spell and the Name of the Mage Featline didn’t allow written or recorded word or images of the protected individual without their express approval. In other words, news of Briggs, Sama, and me fighting in Boston and then being somewhere else far too quickly couldn’t spread except by face-to-face conversations, even with the internet being as ubiquitous and open as it was.
Nobody realized it, of course. Subtle Lesser Mass Geases people didn’t even realize were there kept people from posting and talking about us, respecting our privacy and shutting down their urges to be the first to gossip about us being there by weight of vocal promises becoming something more. Our comings and goings were always in ‘private rooms’ purchased in Boston, covered for by the people we left behind, and nobody realized we weren’t even there most of the time.
The Mick was chomping at the bit to learn that particular magic, as was Driver Sam. Both had begun the process of extending Lived-Lines all over the place in anticipation, Sam driving me around as I held lessons for everyone in Markspace.
Amusingly enough, the best way to use Teleport was drive to a certain point, park the car, Teleport home, and then Teleport back to continue the trip the next day. We could also use it to shuttle personnel to new locations, as needed, and given the recruiting and expanding we were doing, that was exactly what was happening. Sama and Briggs had blizzards worth of plans, so they needed people, which meant recruits and more resources.
More instant information via Marks wouldn’t hurt, either.
The fact we were expanding and recruiting wasn’t hard to learn, but most didn’t understand the sheer numbers we could gather. After all, we weren’t trying to attract the people everyone else was, which were the gifted mages, especially the ones with Talents or the rarer Elements.
Nope, we wanted the smart ones who were not Awakened, because they had a totally new and different path going forward open to them, which the Families did not dominate.
Briggs and Sama were already building an alternate-path high school/Academy near Coralost for kids who hadn’t been Awakened, and a Trade School/College opposite it for an alternative to the mage-centered universities. Having a whole lot of income streaming in definitely helped matters, as they needed craftsmen to teach, and a whole lot of instructors who I was putting through their beginning paces even now.
Also, they needed to expand the White Mana Zone, which meant talking with Babe and making sure he didn’t have issues with it. We had a solution for that, too...
------
“Hey, you. Yeah, you. I don’t know your name, so my apologies for not addressing you as such.”
The four-foot-high Bird perched rather sullenly in his cage straightened up and looked around alertly after being addressed.
A subtle flash of a truly unique shade of fire drew his attention to the young Human female in the dark hat, her white hair braided behind her. A taller, lean Human male with scars from burns on his head, the wafting aroma of some unusual Flames about him, stood next to her. Among the crowds of Humans looking and pointing at him, they still stood out magically for the uniqueness of the Fire magic about them.
His attention was on them as she continued to speak, unnoticed by the other Humans about.
“I would like to offer you the opportunity to get out of there.” He straightened fractionally at her words, but only just. Humans were treacherous things, as he’d found when he was captured and they’d tried to force him into subservience.
He was a Sunbreasted Robin, of one of the noblest Avian lineages! He had spurned their demands, despite the pain they’d put him under, nearly immolating himself several times before they desisted. In the end, he was not killed, as he’d expected, as it turned out his lineage was a venerated one among the Human tribes here, and killing him would have been taken as a sacrilege and brought retribution from other Humans.
So instead, he was bartered to another group of Humans, who treated him as a mere Servant creature, caged in steel bars and unable to fly free. Many, many of the Humans came to visit him on days with nice weather, to see the Fire and Light that danced across his feathers and proclaimed his nobility to all creatures... except the Humans were too dense and staid to understand.
Being talked to directly in his own tongue was different, but it did not calm his suspicions.