The resigned and mentally weary look of a martial arts coach who realized that words will not be enough and that they must teach a student a lesson washed over Cebisi’s face, as he lowered his hand in a slow and non-dramatic fashion blood still staining two fingers.
Andrew felt the ache between his shoulders from the tension held there as he stood poised to move, yet trying to appear still so as not to provoke the elf into action. Andrew’s mind raced to formulate a plan. He must have thought of hundreds and shot each one down in turn and what it settled on was not what Andrew would call a good plan but it was the only one that he thought might have even the smallest chance of working. He knew he was gravely outmatched and that he likely had no good chance of escaping, but he also knew he had to try something, or he’d likely not enjoy what was to come.
Seeing the familiar red glow began to coalesce around Cebisi’s hand, Andrew sprang into action. Moving laterally while he attempted to concentrate his will on that dreadful glow. He hoped that like the shackles he could shatter the magic with his will before it posed him any danger. He found out the hard way he couldn’t stop it, and what formed surprised Andrew as it was not lightning, but a small 15cm fireball. He had bet too heavily on his abilities so when the fireball flew, he was unable to dodge in time and it struck him in the chest.
[Full thickness burn, 30% of chest. Please seek medical attention.]
Andrew looked down to inspect the damage. His shirt was vaporized away in a perfect circle that centered on his heart. Visible through that circle was another perfect circle though this one was made of heavily seared flesh. The air filled with the smell of burnt meat and ozone. While his chest throbbed horribly with pain, he realized that this elf, like the elf on the last ship, seemed to be trying to cause pain to gain compliance and not permanently damage him.
I’m surprised they even tried that. I mean healing magic is a thing and I know what it can do. Are people here so weak that they crumble with some pain? Ok a lot of pain, but that doesn’t matter, I’ll be damned before they push me around with pain. It's high time they realized this.
"Wow that's not even close to fair or equivalent force," Andrew said dodging the next fireball and the one after that. After so many spells he had come to the realization that he wasn’t able to dispel the magic before it was loosed at him. Instead, he was trying to close the distance, He might not be as magically adept as this guy, but he was reasonably sure he was stronger. Despite his best efforts though he was gaining no ground. Cebisi was a whirlwind of magic throwing some spell or another his way. The only bit of good news was that Cebisi had stopped throwing fireballs and was focusing only on force bolts. Andrew guessed this was because his side of the room looked as if it might catch on fire and any moment. The “wood” wall had become blackened with embers smoldering in the center of each blast mark. Either way it meant the consequences making a mistake were much lower.
"HOW long can you keep this up?" Andrew said in what he hoped was a snarky tone but worried it might reveal the bone-weary ache that had taken up residence in his chest.
"Quite possibly two to three days. Maybe now you might care more about the fact that I said I was Leikni than what my surname is," Cebisi responded casually as if he were prepping a coffee while a coworker talked to him. All the while continuing to absent mindedly hurled bolts around the room after Andrew. Keeping Andrew contained very effectively to the other side of the room.
Andrew noted that the purple lines going into and out of Cebisi's head were pulsing here and there.
After another few, Cebisi sighed.
“How long can YOU keep this up for?” accentuating the you.
Andrew did a fanboy giggle and responded, “I can do this all day! Glad you finally fell for my setup.”“What setup is this? Hmm never mind I don’t care. It’s time for this to stop”
When the black energy started to coalesce around Cebisi’s hand, Andrew stopped, put his hands up, and said, "OK I concede and apologize for drawing blood."
"Ah, I see you've felt the touch of death magic. Was it an energy drain or soul attack?" Cebisi said as if a fly had interrupted their previous conversation and he was just restarting where he left off. Both men moved back to the center of the room. The elf's bleeding lip had already mended itself back together. Even his chest was slightly better than when he first was injured.
[Full-thickness burn has healed 10% from original damage.]
"I was told it was soul magic and that I almost died from it." groaned Andrew while touching his chest. Noting the oddly perfect circle which had been seared into his flesh was already much smaller, the new skin was perfect and unscared. A gift Andrew was mildly thankful for.
"It seems your anti-magical abilities have some limitations," Cebisi noted.
"Sadly, it would seem, so. You seem oddly calm for someone who was just decked twice. Especially, compared to the arrogant bigoted molesters I've met so far. " Andrew said begrudgingly.
"Yes, well to them you're an animal that can talk. As for my calmness, it's because I understand that you're just trying to send a message that you will not be pushed around. Even by someone whose power level overshadows your own by a degree, I’m not sure you could comprehend at this point. Keep acting in this way though and I’m afraid you will." Cebisi said with a knowing look.
"Did it work?" replied Andrew, a smile teasing at the edge of his lips.
"As I understood the point of it, I could say so.”After a brief pause, Cebisi added, “Even if I think you're a bit silly to test us." Cebisi said sympathetically.
"So what now?"
"While I don't have magic from every Ikolis to test against you; I have enough to get started. We need to figure out where your powers start and where they end," Cebisi said in a clinical tone.
"How did I know that you were about to say that?”
“My guess is you’re smart than we give you credit for”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Andrews eyes narrowed and he made a fist with his right hand, “Wait, did you test your magic on my wife as well?"
Without a response, Cebisi tossed a small animal into the air. At least Andrew felt that it was, he couldn’t be sure. It looked odd, like two giant eyes attached to two large batlike ears with purple warty skin set in a slim body that featured four wings in two sets finally ending in a weird kind of pig/rat tail that itself ended with a cat-like claw. The wings were beating with hummingbird speed and the creature was surprisingly stable and quiet. Though a very faint hum could be heard when it was within a few feet.
Just before Andrew’s anger might boil over Cebisi finally responded. The creepy eye creature stared unblinking at the two of them.
"Oh no while she was good at closing her mind off, she wasn't good enough to withstand my ministrations, so there was no need for all of this testing. I had her mind and soul tell me what she was capable of. Honestly, it saved her a lot of discomfort. Discomfort I'm sure you will wish you could avoid, by the time we're done. Though I still suspect you’ll choose to go through it.," Cebisi said as if it was a Tuesday meeting over coffee.
“What is that?" Andrew said, ignoring the threat, pointing to the creature, but Cebisi seemed to be lost in thought muttering to himself, "Ok so we know that the subject can block every type of Okusiga I have, which is impressive in and of itself. That it can defeat some Cinética, but not all. We'll definitely have to ex… What oh what is that?" Cebisi asked while pointing at the creature. Andrew nodded.
"It’s a Jazdıruu, they record everything they see and hear for future viewing. Unlike the recorders, we have in this room, Jazdiruu records everything that happens around them and does so in a way that allows the viewer of that recording to move through a scene as if they were in the room. And not just from the Jaz’s point of view.”
"Oh, I thought they were supposed to be made of crystal with tattered bat-like wings and have a purplish glow in them,” Andrew said dryly.
“Wait you have Jazdiruu where you’re….” a flat look went across Cebisi’s face. “Mr. Lather this is for magic’s sake will you please take this somewhat seriously? I’d rather not transfer you to a more persuasive person.”
“So do you like to have to carry it around with you to review it or does it have some way to store the information?"
"Not that I should tell you, but it does have a storage crystal that can be viewed elsewhere. Though that is just for backup as it's connected to the Veba and all data is also stored there. Back to the matter of my research, Mr. Lather. How exactly do you block our magic?"
“Wait before I answer that, not that I’m sure I want to, what is the VEEBA? Was it?”"If I’m remembering your technology well it’s what you call the internet, or the cloud was it?"
“Ah that makes sense you’d have to have some magical form of a communications hub. Thanks for answering that, Ceb.”
"Cebisi"
"So how does your magic work exactly, Ceb?" Andrew queried unphased.
Cebisi sighed "Mr. Lather, you're not going to get what you want from me, with such petty tactics. My name is Cebisi or Mr. Atari if you would like to remain formal. It is my hope that we can stop these petty tactics and work together. As for magic, there are many philosophical explanations for the meaning, function, and reasoning of our magical abilities. I don't have the time or patience to go over all of that with you, so suffice it to say our magic works because our cells harness the cosmic energy produced by our galaxy and give us access to it. Now that I have answered one of your questions will you please answer mine?"
Andrew couldn't help but grin as he answered "Well. MR. ATARI, my best guess is that my cells harness the cosmic energy produced by your galaxy. Truthfully, I don't know. I see no real reason to try to hide this as you can, and probably already have looked up the recordings from my interactions with Captain Lachs. Not sure why, but it has something to do with your control worm."
"I'm glad my name amuses you, but again petty. What do you mean by our 'control worm'? We have no such viruli."
Andrew raised an eyebrow "Vir what eee?"
Cebisi pointed at the floating eyeball recording thing with wings "A jazdiruu is a type of viruli. Viruli are any creature that we bred using magic to help with a task. In this case, recording moments. You likely haven't encountered many yet as they are often either not allowed on ships or confined to quarters. We used to allow them, but with the confines of a ship, they were found to be more of a distraction than help. Their waste alone was a huge issue. Technically, the ships that you came to this planet on were also a type of viruli. Just for your edification, we call ship type viruli, Vivosipi."
"So that 6-eyed whale thing was the ship? Please don't say those cells were its bowels."
"No Mr. Lather you were in purpose-built organs and don’t worry those were not attached to the creature's bowels, ", a reassuring smile crept on his face as he said it, "You know, even this building is technically a Viruli. As it is a living object that we evolved to fit our needs. In this case, it is a very large tree. This is why it can grow new things, such as chairs, for us on command, Mr. Lather, I really must get back to a question though which is of concern to me, why do you call them 'control worms'?"
"I think you call them Apkneean worms or something close to that," responded Andrew.
"I believe you mean Apanean worms. They are the worms that Lachs implanted you with. Its sole purpose is to facilitate communication translation, so we don’t have to waste our energy to do so. So, I’m very curious about why you would call them control worms. They don't control much other than how you perceive speech."
"I call them that because that’s the name my implant uses when talking about them. Speaking of which. I am not sure how it came back online after I was healed nor how that worm interfaced with my implant or how it came up with that name for them. I’m also curious about why my implant was the sole unit to survive to this point. If you’re people are telling me the truth that is."
Andrew’s face scrunched up when he realized he had yet again slipped out some information he didn't intend to.
"Interesting, probably just some fault in your primitive implant technology. However, I would like to understand how your implant was able to interface with our viruli. This is not something I believe we have seen before. Don't worry though the worms are harmless, every elf has one. Infact, I have one myself. Do I seem like I'm being controlled?"
"Well, you do have quite a few purple lines running to your head, and one sure seems brighter than the rest and the pulses seem to be traveling away from you more than to you," Andrew said in response.
"How many lines do you see?" Cebisi queried, eyes going a bit wide and the concern could be felt in his voice.
"11" responded Andrew.
"You must be mistaken, or your primitive brain must not be able to handle the input it's getting from the magical field. " Cebisi said with a slight waver to his tone.
Then Andrew saw that brighter outbound purple line start to pulse going towards Cebisi instead of only away from him.
Cebisi calmed some "So, again how do you control your powers exactly? Is it conscience or subconscious? "
"Yeah, again I don't see any reason I should tell you such things without benefiting from it" Andrew retorted with an obstinate smile. “Ceb, did you notice how when I pointed out something that might make you question something you think you know? Like the number of communications lines, you have open, you suddenly start to ask a different question? Are you sure you’re the one in control or will your puppet master show itself?”
An extremely bright purple line of magic came down from the ceiling and tried to attach itself to Andrew’s mind. While Andrew felt some pressure, akin to taking a difficult test, on his mind, but in the end the purple line retreated into the ceiling.
"It appears your boss is not pleased with your attempts at controlling me. If they really want to talk to me, they should come here and meet me in person. Instead of doing your best impression of some terrible elven frat that hasn't gotten the consent memo." Andrew said with a smug expression on his face.
He saw a reflection of magenta lights on the opposite wall and felt an extremely powerful presence materialize into the room. A look of servitude and submission washed over Cebisi's face and body language.
"Let me guess, your boss came here to meet me?" Andrew said to Cebisi.
"No, Mr. Lather you wished my direct boss was the one who just showed up."
"Leave us, Cebisi," said a voice from behind Andrew.
The voice had a very otherworldly and wise masculine tone to it. A few purple flashes were exchanged between the two elves before Cebisi bowed deeply and then disappeared in a magenta flash, his eyes never rising to the person behind Andrew.