Dana picked herself up off the turf out in front of the dorm. Vague flashes of the last few minutes flickered through her head. She remembered coming out onto the front porch, hot on the tails of the wannabe magicians, doing around twenty miles an hour and then…
The floor of the porch cracked and shifted like it was caught in an earthquake. Sliding worked well on an even surface, but on that—no wonder she hurt all over.
“Done with your nap?” asked the last voice she wanted to hear at the moment—or any moment. She didn’t make more than an unintelligible series of grunts and growls as she stood up, ignoring Wayne’s offered hand.
“Shut up. They caught me by surprise. Now which way did they go?”
Wayne pointed down the shallow, grassy slope ahead of them. There was a brick walk at the bottom that meandered from one end of campus to the other, more or less bisecting it and connecting all the main academic halls and clusters of dorms.
During the school year, it would be full of students, but over the summer, especially this close to dinner, it was deserted except for a trio of figures pelting down it, away from the newly risen tower at the top of the walk.
Her sword had disappeared during her fall; both an inconvenience and a safety feature that caused the sword to fade if it left her grasp. After all, it wouldn’t do to have a sword that could cut through almost anything non-living to go flying out of her grip uncontrolled. Closing her hand over her chest, she recited the mnemonic to summon it.
“Locum in manu mea defendit ferro.” Red energy collected in her hand and extended into the blade of the Sword that Defends. “We warned them what would happen if they pulled this.” She said in a growl.
“We did.” Wayne felt awkward agreeing with her, but things always felt mildly wrong when she was near. He tried to blame her, but there wasn’t really any doubt that it was the gift-turned-curse Morganna promised to remove from them. Sometimes, he privately wondered what would happen between them when it was lifted. Would they still hate each other?
Shaking this line of thought off, he decided merely to follow her as she struck off in pursuit. Lifting the curse wouldn’t even be an option if they didn’t do as Morganna demanded.
***
“Wait.”
The fact that the little blonde girl spoke at all bought Occult up faster than the actual words. When she turned to ask why, she found Theresa perched on the edge of a fountain that sat at an intersection where the brick walk passed three halls before running downhill toward the student union.
“What are you doing? We need to buy time for the others to get here. Believe me, The three of us aren’t enough to take those two plus… Where did Manikin go?”
“No idea.” said Jennifer, “But don’t underestimate Theresa. She’s… well she’s very, very good at this.”
For her part, Theresa sat with her head bowed, eyes screwed shut. Her lips moved rapidly as she whispered a spell Occult wasn’t familiar with.
“O Formless shadow of life, follow this path and take the firmament as flesh, the phantoms of this mind as form, my words as purpose, and walk the earth at my invitation.” Her eyes snapped open and she stood suddenly, holding her arms straight out in the direction of the brick walkway, palms downward. Her knees flexed and she made a thrusting motion with her arms.
Her voice, normally timid and halting, became firm and forceful in the last three words. “Rise, Stone Serpent.”
The bricks in front of her exploded, followed by those directly in front of them and so on until there was a thirty foot long line of blasted brick and mortar leading away from Theresa. Before the debris could settle, an unseen force took hold of it, pulling it together into a new shape.
From the trench the spell cut, emerged a beast formed of a patchwork of brick, mortar, and the rock beneath. It’s body was long and lithe, but as thick around as a barrel. It coiled as it extracted itself from the ground. Last came the head; elongated and triangular like a crocodile’s but with two horns rising from its brow and a serrated maw instead of teeth.
Yellow-green flames lit the hollows of its eyes as it swung its head around to look at the one who summoned it. Theresa showed no fear as those deadly looking jaws came near and looked it directly in the eyes.
“Protect us.” She ordered.
“You were right.” Occult said, recalling the concrete and glass dragons Morganna summoned when she was trying to steal magic from her demonic allies. “She’s good.”
“I’ve never seen her do this before.”
Theresa directed the serpent to turn its vigil toward the oncoming Knights, then spoke without taking her eyes off it. “I’ve been practicing. When you go clubbing, or on dates. I practice.”
“I don’t know what to even say to that.” said Jennifer, looking cowed.
Occult stepped up beside the serpent. “That makes two of us. But here they come. You said you can make spells stronger. Does that count other people’s?” Jennifer nodded.
“Good. Then make this one stronger.” Occult took a solid stance, body turned at a right angle to Wayne and Dana, one hand in a fist, with the other extending the index and middle fingers over it.
“Light of Providence that pierces sky and cloud. That sheds brilliance on all life. Bring brightness now to the eyes of my enemy.” A bow of solid, white light formed in her hand. In fits and starts over the past year, she’d been refining the spell. Unlike many of the spells she knew, the words for this one mattered, and by tinkering with the wording, she refined it to shoot farther, more accurately, and more importantly, with more force. It wasn’t a spell she aimed at normal humans for fear it might be fatal. But the two Knights weren’t ordinary humans and hadn’t been for a hundred lifetimes.
Behind her, Jennifer spoke words in a quick, clipped tongue, mostly nonsense phrases made up of words from all over Southern Europe and North Africa. Along with them, she gestured with her middle and ring fingers. Most spells in the Books were named; constructions or discoveries made by wizards from times long past. ‘meta’ magic was different. They weren’t spells so much as extensions to be added to other spells. This one was a very simple one that let more power by put into a spell than could be possible. She finished just as Occult drew back the string of her bow of light, creating an arrow in the process.
“Shine Heavenly Arrow!” Occult pulled and released. The arrow became a beam of white that followed a perfectly straight line from her to Dana.
But with a burst of speed, Wayne was in front of her, the Shield that Overcomes, thrust out to intercept. The Heavenly Arrow struck the Shield with a sound like an entire shop full of fine china shattering and drove both it and Wayne back.
Wayne managed to stay on his feet for the first yard or so, but slammed into Dana, who didn’t have the added stability that came with holding the Shield that Overcomes. They both tripped over one another and hit the ground just as the last of the empowered spell spent itself against the shield.
Following directly behind it, however, was the stone serpent. The titanic construct surged forth, it’s weight and speed gouging more brick and dirt out of the walk as it came. It reared up before them, saw-toothed maw gaping just before it struck.
Wayne pushed Dana off him and changed the shape of the shield from its usual triangular configuration to a concave oblong that fit perfectly into the descending jaws. With several tons of rock being forced down on him, he was soon forced to his knees again.
Letting out a grating roar, the serpent relented and drew back for another attack.
“You about ready to help?” Wayne barked at his partner.
“Not you.” Dana said haughtily as she readied her sword. “But once it’s done with you, I’m next, so…”
Taking off like a sprinter, she pushed off first from the ground, which, thanks to the powers invested in her thousands of years ago, carried her far higher than a normal person; high enough that her next bound was off Wayne’s shoulder.
A thrill filled her. She hadn’t even known she could do something like that, but instincts had taken over and now a flood of memories came back of how many times in the past she’d done the same, sometimes aided by a third launching point in the form of his shield.
Seeing the new target, the stone serpent went for her instead, but the Knight struck first, the Sword that Defends only hitched slightly as it cleaved through the construct’s face, from the left nostril , through the edges of one eye, then down the side of the head to the neck.
Loose bricks and rocks exploded from the wound and the lights went out in the monster’s eyes. Momentum carried it forward, forcing Wayne to dodge as it came down in an avalanche that sent rubble bounding down the path and smashing in the windows of a nearby dorm.
Dana landed lightly and used her free hand to shield her nose and mouth from the dust as she strode out of the cloud and into view of Occult and the two mages.
“Now. Let’s have a talk about what ‘work for us or else’ means, shall we?”
***
Kareem was well aware that the others saw him as ‘the wise one’. Even the older residents at Freeland House thought of him as closer to earth and levelheaded. Whenever he was described, the words ‘fine, young man’ were sure to come up.
And he was proud of that. But sometimes, he wished he was known as more of a man of action.
There was a certain irony to it; he was a small god on the Astral Plane, but in order to use those powers, he had to leave his body vulnerable and unresponsive. Without paying that price, he was just fairly low powered telepath.
Even with the astral powers, he often found himself in the position of an observer; just conveying information instead of acting. He wasn’t bitter though; information he’d learned or his minor ability to manipulate weak minds had saved his friends’ lives and the lives of other people more often than he could enumerate—and that was enough.
Now it would have to be enough again; he’d already tried to attack Inexorable from the astral side and been repelled. Morganna’s astral body was probably even worse. It was a long shot, but maybe he could use his weakest powers to at least learn something useful—possibly even attack them from that angle.
By the time he returned to his body and walked back to the tower, he found that he wasn’t alone; a few dozen students had turned up to gawk and with them, a good mix of police, both campus and city.
Not only was the tower an oddity to be stared at, but its placement gave everyone a safe vantage point to watch (and film) the fight going on at the other end of Campus Walk. Rumors, theories and just plain lies filled both the air and the minds as Kareem placed himself near the hastily erected police line.
Closing his eyes, he slowed his breathing and concentrated.
Detecting thoughts that weren’t being directed at him wasn’t a neat prospect. No one was ever one hundred percent focused on just one thing and every thought, even minor, useless surface chatter, was interconnected with other thoughts, memories, principles, ideas, delusions and other mental odds and ends that make up consciousness.
And very little of it was in the form of a voice in the head. Memory especially was made up of sights, sounds, smells and other feedback from senses most people aren’t even aware of. Learning how to interpret that was the hardest thing about being a telepath.
That, and avoiding the veritable buffet of temptation that came with having the thoughts of others at his fingertips. Kareem was no stranger to that. It took more willpower than he wanted to admit not to peak into his girlfriend’s mind from time to time.
Around him, the sights and sounds his own body was privy to dulled and suddenly the minds of those around him sprang into being; tiny galaxies of collected experiences and conditioning whose configurations were the very core of those people standing around the tower.
Without meaning to, he took in some of these: Someone in front of him was telling his friends that he hoped the bad guys would win in hopes of looking coolly misanthropic while secretly fearing it. Another from the same group wanted to get as far from campus as possible, but was scared of looking like a coward. A lot of them were hoping one of the others would be the first to suggest going.
Kareem pushed them all away and focused his attentions upward, to the top of the tower. It was a testament to how much time he spent with Warrick that he automatically assumed Morganna would be at the top. In his friends words, ‘if there’s a tall building, everything important will be at the top.’
Sure enough, they were. All three of them.
Tatiana Farnsworth. He thought to himself. He’d almost overlooked that Morganna was inhabiting the body of Lisa’s aunt.
What? Who’s there?
Kareem flinched at the unexpected reply in his head, drawing a confused stare at some of those standing nearby.
Is this… Tatiana Farnsworth?
Yes. You know me?
I know of you. You traded fates with your niece and became the host for Morganna. I’m here to help you.
There was a heavy silence between them before Tatiana replied. You can’t help me. It’s over.
No. Shot back Kareem, It is not. I’m not alone. Soon some very powerful allies will come and this time, we will stop her and save you.
You don’t understand. You’re out of time. This tower is… it’s like a power station and it’s powering a big spell: a spell that’ll put her back into her body.
But that’s good isn’t it? You’ll have your body back.
No, it isn’t good. Magic is a body and soul thing. She’s dangerous now, but when she gets her body back, she’ll be maybe ten times as powerful and have access to a hundred times as many spells. She’s been working with just what she could scavenge or recreate so far. Getting her body back gives her everything she used to have and let me tell you this: she’s the reason the magic went away.
She continued in a hurried pace. Everything we’ve every heard about witch burnings? People being shunned for what people thought were magical powers? It was all her fault. And she’ll do it again. She doesn’t even understand what it is she’s doing.
Kareem remained firm. There must be something we can do. If you know all this, you must know her weaknesses.
It’s too late for anything I know that can help. If you can, destroy the tower. It’ll kill us both, but that’s the only thing I know that’ll work now.
Lisa won’t allow that.
Lisa’s a good girl and a strong woman. She’ll understand eventually. Tell her… tell her that I tried. I’ve been working at it for months, slowing Morganna down, making her more confused and unfocused. But it wasn’t enough. Tell her I’m sorry. If I never tried to get my thrills by being Nightshade, if I never took that job to take the painting… I’m so sorry.
Kareem became aware of the crowd moving, of people pointing. And then he heard the whine of engines approaching through the air.
Landon Porter is the author of The Descendants and Rune Breaker. Follow him on Twitter @ParadoxOmni or sign up for his newsletter.
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