Twisted Fate is up at the link below.
https://royalroadl.com/fiction/15743/twisted-fate
The rewrite of Twisting Fate will be up and started in the next few days and I'll put another announcement here for it. Releases may be a little slow until the second week of January. I'll be alternating between the two a few chapters at a time.
Happy Holidays.
Below is a preview of the rewrite:
The world where we live is just one of many, the full number of worlds that exist is not known at least to mortals. Some of these other worlds are physical as are our own but there are also places of forces and ideas where the physical body does not matter. Some are peaceful others wish nothing more to consume our world to strengthen theirs. – A passage from Introduction to the Planes, by Roldolf Grunsier
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Adrian
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I close my book as the bell rings signaling the end of class. Unlike the other students who take a minute to pack up their books and the homework we we’re working on I simply grab my book bag and sling it over my shoulder. I finished early, every single one of the questions was just regurgitating the reading and it doesn’t take that long to write down details you remember.
The hallways are beginning to fill but I manage to get a good thirty maybe forty second head start on the lunch line so that’ll give me plenty of choices for a table, not that I'll be taking a different table than the one I usually do. Today is Monday so I grab a tray of nachos, a side of fries and the chocolate skim milk since the administration decided that whole milk has too many calories and makes kids fat.
The lunch lady says nothing as I pass my ID badge under the scanner. Some money is deducted from my account and I continue on to take my seat at a table next to the door for the court yard.
I could have gone outside but the doors are locked this week as punishment for the idiots that decided to start a fight over who gets one of the two tables last week. Instead I get to sit at one made of plywood and laminate.
Tomas is the next to arrive, as he skips the line all together by bringing his lunch. Something I’m considering more and more since what I consider better choices on the menu have been eliminated this year.
“I still don’t get how you manage to arrive before me every day” Tomas says as he sits down and unzips his blue lunch box.
I turn to my short spectacled friend, “long legs and dodging the crowds. My secret hasn’t changed.”
I take a bite of the nachos and the cheap unhealthy synthetic cheese that covers them as I notice Bryan standing in line on the other side of the room.
“Did you finish the book yet then?” Tomas asks as he rolls his eyes to my answer for the question he asks about once a week.
“Yeah, family car trips have a lot of down time” I answer as I pull out the book I borrowed from him, one of three books in my book bag not related to school work.
He puts it in his own backpack before unwrapping a sandwich. I end up finishing about half of my nachos and dump my fries in the pooling cheese and now soggy chips and pick up the provided spork.
“How did the game go?” I ask knowing I missed our weekly session.
“Poorly but it was just a one-shot dungeon crawl to be something to do. Your character just spent the time reading through the spell book you stole last week.”
“Sounds about right. Any deaths?”
“No but after paying for temple services it ended up a net loss.”
Bryan sets his tray down as I scoop the last of the remnants of my nachos up for consumption. This meal just isn’t as filling without the whole milk. I’m still hungry but it’s manageable, maybe it’s really a scheme to get us to buy more of the add on items.
“Catching him up on the misadventure he missed?” Bryan says as he begins to eat.
“Yeah, but it is expected when the party doesn’t have its rouge or caster” Tomas answers.
“That’s the risks of gestalt characters, smaller parties but each character is more important” I comment.
“So how was your family trip over the break?” Bryan asks.
“Grandpa had me help him out with his puzzles again” I lie as I always have to. I can’t go out and say he made me practice magic for three days straight.
“That sucks” Tomas comments.
“Not too much, I did get to listen to more of his stories” I say as my pocket buzzes.
I pull out my cellphone, I usually don’t get messages during school or very often at all actually. I flip the old piece of junk open to see that it’s my grandfather.
“Something interesting?” Tomas asks in his curiosity.
“Don’t know I have to read it first.”
Adrian, something terrible is about to happen. Try to get to you younger brothers they’ll keep you safe. I’ve placed some weapons on the desk if you need them.
I’m not sure what to think about this. Grandpa wouldn’t send me anything unless it was important and had to do with magic. I still feel a little irked that he is telling me to run off to be protected by my little brothers. I’m the oldest, I’m the one that is supposed to be reliable if anything goes wrong. I still don’t understand how they are so much better than me at magic, I am doing very well except for the Spatial Sphere.
“It’s my grandpa, more of his usual cryptic messages” I answer in a half truth.
“Need any help?” Bryan asks.
“No, I’ve heard this riddle before. Anyways, whose house will game night be Friday?”
“My mom is on her clean up all the sin in her house again. My books are safe under a pile of old bibles but unless you want to be called to repentance for playing a demon’s game. . .”
“You mother is crazy, nice old lady but crazy. I’ll host” Tomas interjects as Bryan trails off.
Mrs. Grace is nice but she gets overzealous a bit too easily. In a week or two it’ll be over but until then I don’t want to risk her ‘accidently’ spilling coffee or otherwise ruining any of our gaming supplies.
The bell rings but something else draws my attention. A flash of off colored lighting and a crack of thunder even though there is hardly a cloud in the sky. The combined chaos of hundreds of teenagers all talking at once goes silent for a moment before it begins anew, louder than before. A few seconds pass as I pick up my book bag and dump the tray in the nearest trash can.
“What is that?” Tomas asks pointing at the court yard.
I turn and immediately frown, an unnatural purplish fog is building up before another crack of thunder. A starved midget walks out in tattered leather holding what looks like a malformed axe. There are screams as the creature charges at us in feral hunger as he slams into the glass door, cracking it but the malnourished creature does not seem to have the weight to break through all at once.
“Is that real?” Bryan asks pointing at the creature as more begin to step out of the fog, soon they begin to join their forerunner in attacking the glass.
“Yes, we need to get out of here now” I say while sticking a hand into my book bag.
Space bends to my will as I grab an object not in my bag, a loaded pistol from a desk in my grandfather’s basement in Colorado. I can’t do this in front of others since others questioning magic makes it unstable but if they don’t notice or accept it there are no problems but magic is not known to many.
I let go and drop it into my bag before doing the same again. I am going to need every advantage I can get if this is going to continue on the direction.
“Get back” yells the security guard as he draws his gun, the older former soldier getting ready to cover the students as they retreat.
“Move towards the language hallway” I tell Bryan and Tomas.
“No external windows, better defenses, right?” Bryan asks but neither Tomas or me answer him.
The midgets break through the glass and begin to charge the nearest person, shouting in their strange tongue and in a strange calmness he begins to clear his magazine. None of us stay to see what become of the man though as the numbers of enemies swell his bullets no doubt become scarce.
I can hear other windows breaking as we three move swiftly through the halls. A smell of filth and something else I do not find familiar. Screams of pain and panic echo through the halls, before we reach the halls I had hoped to be able to defend ourselves in a few of the midgets enter the hallway. Covered in blood and less famished than the few I saw while fleeing from the cafeteria.
The creatures begin to charge at us and I pull one of the two pistols from my book bag and fire at the nearest of them. Bryan and Tomas jump back and I hear a “shit” though I’m not sure from which one of them.
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The little monster gets a hole in its chest while the next nearest screams in fear for a moment before it runs at me. I fire again barely managing to before the creature reached me in these close quarters.
“Where did you get that?” Bryan asks.
“It’s not the time to ask questions” I say while passing that gun to him.
My heartbeat begins to slow back down with the immediate danger having passed. I begin to move faster than before but do not break into a run. Panic will get me killed, I can’t give in the building fear. Being scared get you killed, I take a deep breath as I pull out the other pistol as I continue towards the inner halls of the language department.
“Can I get one?” Tomas asks.
“I only have two and Bryan is a better shot than you” I answer while ignoring the sounds of loud chewing from the windowed rooms.
We turn the corner to the hallway, there are only two ways in and out and none of the rooms have windows. The easily defended hall already has a barricade made of desks, at least some one is thinking of how to protect ourselves.
We approach the barricade and I motion Bryan to conceal the gun I passed him as I place mine back in my bag. I should not need it against the other students and teachers but it will cause a problem if they see the weapons. I should not have them, and I am sure someone will throw a fit if they are seen.
“Let them through” a female voice I recognize shouts out.
No one moves to do anything as we climb over the overturned desks and chairs. Once over Abagail runs up to Bryan and asks how he is. I tune out that conversation as Tomas begins a different conversation with me.
“What are those things?”
“Something that should not be here. Small, violent but otherwise we do not know enough to know just what they are” I answer.
“They look almost like goblins, ugly midgets with elongated ears and pointed teeth. They have crude weapons too.”
“Goblins don’t exist though. None of this should be happening.”
“Yes, but they’re here and not all of us can be hallucinating the same thing at once.”
“Something is still wrong.”
Tomas shrugs and our conversation is ended by the shrieks and yells of the probably goblins. I turn to the barricade closest to me, a few of the athletes have some sports equipment and Mr. Gibbons are standing at the ready to meet them.
I look past them towards the dozen or so onrushing creatures there are several with differing equipment, a few of them have bows rather than axes, clubs or rusted blades. A single goblin is in cloth rather than the leather and occasional scraps of chain. The clothed goblin seems to be leading as he speaks to the others who cease their charge.
Should I shoot him? Killing the leader will raise my chances of survival. Unfortunately, I do not have a clear shot. I could hit some of the archers, is that worth the risk of exposing myself?
A flame forms before the clothed goblin and I find myself smiling. So, he is a caster like me but he just did something really stupid. Doing something this obvious is the very thing you should never do.
The fire hits the line of desks and not all of the students manage to take cover before it hits. A few people scream as they are rapidly burned alive. I run to the left to take cover after a stray arrow passes through the flames. Bryan, Tomas and Abagail being closer to the other side of the hall head in that direction.
Both Bryan and me draw our pistols and I take aim at whatever comes next. The flames quickly die and while some smoke remains I can see the goblins on the other side. While I don’t have a clear sight of any of the goblins I can tell that they are charging.
A gunshot rings out as the first form passes through the smoke, as there are only three firearms on campus it is Bryan who shot it. He doesn’t have enough to deal with all of them though, I take aim at the next creature to break the smoke.
It collapses and I can hear people behind me panicking, I empty the magazine before ducking into the room. I glance at Bryan to see that he has done the same, retreating into the room for its better defensive position. Some of our shots miss and the pistol I’ve loaned Bryan is now empty but there is nothing I can do about that right now.
I close the door behind me and glace over the room, I’m the only person here. A lucky coincidence for me. Space bends once more to my will as I retrieve a small box of 9mm ammunition. I load the magazine as quickly as I can, pinching my finger in the process.
Something hits the door, an attempt to open it but the door opens outwards not inwards. I glance out the window, there are two goblins hitting the door with their dull axes. I notice two archers by the side of the clothed goblin in the hall and my thoughts stop.
How is this possible? He did something impossible in front of so many. That should have killed him, reality should have punished and killed him for what he did. Dozens of people watched him do an impossibility, how does he still live? At least why is the little monster uninjured?
I don’t have a very clear shot but when those goblins do manage to break down the door my chances will be lower. I take aim but the two archers I can see are in the way, I take a breath. If I can take them out fast enough I’ll have a clear shot at that mage. I can’t leave him around, no one else here will be able to deal with him as I can.
My first two shots fly true but the clothed goblin is out of my sight before I can get a chance at him. The goblins at the door however have managed to break most of their way through the door, it will only old for a few more strikes. I can however hear something with a cadence, though neither the language or the words themselves make sense to my mind.
I quickly move back from the door and get ready to get a pot shot at the two as they breach the door. I flip a desk to use as cover from any archers should there be more. The door breaks and I now have five of the nine bullets left in the magazine and the two goblins die in the doorway.
Two more goblins pour through the door, wearing scraps of chain and they seem slightly taller than the previous two. The first dies quickly enough to a bullet as it passes through the doorway but the second gets out of my line of fire before I get a clean shot.
He does however reveal to me the clothed goblin however it is surrounded by small golden specs of light. I quickly pull the trigger, I don’t need a lethal shot if he is in pain he shouldn’t be able to concentrate enough to do any more magic. My first shot does nothing as the golden specs flash and the projectile does nothing. Another impossibility, how is he getting away with this? Even if I don’t think such things as impossible those lights would have been seen before entering this room.
I fire a second time and receive no more than what I think is a laugh from the goblin. I’ve only two shots left and am trapped in melee with the first goblin. His dull blade, barely more than a club strikes my arm and I am thankful for tetanus shot and a goblin’s weak physical strength as that is what keeps the wound from being too bad but I’m going to need to bandage it. I let loose a yell in pain but I don’t feel as much pain as I should, shock or an adrenaline rush.
I find myself holding the pistol with only my right arm and let the last two shots out into the goblin in the hopes to kill him. The goblin drops his sword and falls to the ground but my time spent on dealing with him keeps me from doing anything with the clothed goblin. That goblin utters the last syllable of another spell and a stream if fire spreads from his hand towards me.
I duck behind the desk, glad that I have some cover. The magic goblin continues to hold his blast of fire and I maintain my cover. His magic mages no sense, he shouldn’t be able to ignore reality's retaliation like this.
He should have been destroyed or at least hurt by a backlash by now. I need to take him out myself and the gun won’t work against that shield of glowing specs. Another thing I can’t understand, how is he using two spells at once?
I need a non-physical attack. I could try fire, there is enough for me to try to hijack control of it but I don’t know if I can actually steal fire from this thing's magic. Not any electrical wires close enough either, this is dumb but I can only hope the explosion works.
I toss the partial box of ammunition from my book bag at the goblin. He shifts his fire to try to burn my attack but all that does is cause an explosion. My ears are set ringing but the goblin's fire has stopped.
I rush from my cover and tackle the creature, passing right through his shield of glowing lights I am wrestling a dagger from him using my size and strength as it panics. I stab just under its left breast; a spray of blood tells me my guess is right and the goblin quickly dies over the next few seconds.