The source of magic, p.1
The Source of Magic, page 1
The Source of Magic
Tobias Stanton
Copyright © 2021 Tobias Stanton
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Cover design by: Nycto of Nyctoinc illustrations
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Prelude
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Prelude
Sneaking out of the city was the easy part. The three young women had chosen their time well. Twilight had just begun so there was still enough light to see by without lanterns but the deepening shadows provided just enough concealment when they were forced to duck out of sight from a patrol of guards.
Huddling in the shadow of a large ornamental stone gryphon, the two sisters, Chloe and Selphie, hugged their bodies close around Melanie. The sisters were waiting for Melanie’s signal to move. Her cat ears and large silver eyes gave her an advantage in the world of shadows and whispers over the two entirely human girls. She could hear the chatter of the guards as the walked by on the city wall, the butts of their pikes beating a slow cadence on the stone battlements. When it was safe to move, Melanie gave a quick squeeze to the sisters, and they were off again.
As they ran as swiftly as they dared across the thin strip of overgrown grass field that surrounded the city, Chloe loosened the straps holding a bundle of long, thin, wooden polls to her back. She would need them to open an hole in the Egg.
The Egg was a magical barrier that encompassed the city, and was the last line of defence in the long war that brought the enemy to the gates of the capital. The attack would come in a few hours when the twin moons fell below the horizon and true darkness fell. Until then the enemy would be mustering out side the firing range of the huge arrows of the ballistas sitting atop the cities stone walls.
Stopping briefly at the Egg while Chloe set up a tripod, Melanie took the opportunity to double check their path to make sure they weren’t being pursued. Melanie’s feline instincts were heightened with the tension and every insect chirp or rustle of leaves pushed her to the edge of fleeing to safety.
Fastening a doughnut-shaped crystal into place at the apex of the tripod Chloe was ready, and with her sisters help, she held her breath and slipped the device into contact with the Egg. Instead of being thrown backwards by a blast of deadly blue energy, the device caused an opening to appear. The edges glittered faintly, and as each of the women slipped through they were carful to avoid touching the barrier or disturbing the tripod and crystal. If it were moved out of place they would be trapped with no way to return to safety. Melanie even held her tail close to her chest with her arm incase it twitched unexpectedly and caught one of the wooden legs by accident.
A short run from the city in a field lush with grass the earth gave way to a large, roughly circular, stone surface. The stone was grey and ancient. Veins of gold and opal were streaming to converge in the centre. The veins writhed and moved through the solid stone as if it were liquid without leaving a disturbance as they moved. Even though the night was cool, and a light breeze caused their hair to flutter and the fur on Melanie’s ears and tail to swirl, the stone gave off an unnatural heat.
This was their destination, a convergence of two magical ley lines. Though the ley lines were relatively minor in power, in peace time there would have been guards and city officials regulating peoples use of the convergence. Now that with the convergence outside the protection of the Egg there was no one to keep the three women from their goal.
Selphie knelt down at the centre of the convergence, opened a leather satchel on her belt and extracted a glittering purple-grey piece of chalk and a small sheaf of papers covered in scribbled instructions and diagrams. Using the chalk she began drawing a series of complex markings and calculations on the ground, occasionally stopping to refer notes. The chalk marks glowed and attracted the veins of gold and opal which snaked around them splitting and jumping between the lines and strokes Selphie made.
Melanie and Chloe stood nearby, half watching Selphie’s progress, half staring into the growing darkness of the dyeing twilight for enemy soldiers.
“I can’t believe those old idiots leave the place unprotected like this,” Chloe whispered to Melanie.
Being on edge made Chloe short tempered and snappy and her usual frustrations were spilling out as a way to compensate.
“And they just sit behind the Egg like it will last for ever and leave it up to us to figure out a way to fight back, two novices and a … ” Chloe paused to choose her words carefully while she side-eyed Melanie who was nervously shifting her weight from foot to foot, “an orphan refugee. They’re nothing but a lazy, egotistical bunch of –”
“Finished,” Selphie called out, interrupting her sister’s increasingly loud rant.
Coming together and joining hands around the chalk the three women formed a triangle. After a short pause to look the other two women in the eye and confirming they were ready, Selphie uttered the word of command.
“Klaatu!”
And then everything when wrong.
Chapter 1
Johnathan Kirk rolled himself onto his side and steadied himself into the recovery position. For a moment he didn’t know if he was going to be sick or not, he was still blinded from whatever that flash had been, and he didn’t trust himself to stand up yet.
Moments before he had been sitting at home, fresh beer in hand, scrolling through TV channels. It was the perfect bachelor’s Monday night. It was a stark change from his life in the Navy. No drinking on ships for starters. There was also no privacy, no uninterrupted eight hours sleep for watch keepers like him, and very little time to relax that wasn’t filled with training or emergency exercises. It was an exciting option for a young single man who wanted to see the world and get an education. But it wasn’t a job, it was a life. And John had faced one major challenge in the Navy: he got seasick, which meant he would have to sign up for a life of seasickness. So when his first stint was up he signed off, got a job at the wharf and started working on making a butt imprint on his new couch.
Then, with no warning at all, John was surrounded by a blinding white light and found himself on his back on a hard stone floor.
After some deep breaths his senses were returning to normal. Blinking a few times cleared his vision though it was dark and he surmised he was outside. While other men might have started to come up with theories about a stroke, alien abduction or, if they were religious, possibly the rapture to explain bright lights and magical transportation John was a man who trusted his eyes. The ground was solid rock and that was good enough for him.
After first pushing himself onto one knee and then, satisfied that his balance had returned, John stood up and planted his feet squarely on the ground to assess his situation further. He was still wearing the boots, jeans and short sleeve button down he had been on the couch. With one hand on his hip he scratched at the days stubble on his square chin, which he alway did when thinking, and slowly turned on the spot.
He noted the three young women spaced around him lying on their backs. They were moaning and grunting while holding their arms to their stomach or head. There was no one else around and he could just make out some trees in one direction and some sort of high wall city in the other. John remembered his first aid training and checked for danger. He resisted the urge to rush in to help, which would be a good way to get yourself electrocuted by the same live wire that took them out. But there was no sign of an electrical cable. He figured maybe there had been a lightning strike related to him being there. He could feel the heat radiating from the ground along with the strange streaks of gold that seemed to be moving, and it was a good an answer as any at this stage.
Satisfied that whatever had happened was over John knelt beside one of the women to see if there was anything he could do to help.
“Hi there, my name is John. I’m trained in first aid. Can you tell me your name?” said John in a clear, commanding tone.
While John was looking her over, he took note of the strange appearance of the women he was kneeling next to. She had short, ash-blond hair in a spiky pixie cut which suited her dainty nose and narrow chin. Her pale skin made the freckles across her nose and cheeks more prominent. Her clothes consisted of a shot sleeved tunic which ended just above the knee and was fastened with a wide brown leather belt. Though her figure was slight, her arms and legs showed signs of muscle definition.
John reached down and grabbed her shoulder firmly and gave her a quick shake to elicit a response.
“Ma’am, can you hear me? Can you understand me?”
Her arm shot up and she brushed John’s hand aside in one fluid move. She opened her eyes and she furrowed her brow looking up at John.
“I’m fine, I’m fine. Check on the others,” she said.
Looking around John could see one of the other women was shuffling into the upright position with her knees bent and her arms propping her up as she slowly leaned her head left and right. She was dressed in similar clothes as the first woman, but she filled them with a more voluptuous figure. Her hair was the same ash-blond colour but she wore it long in a single plait and while her face was softer and more round she had the same nose and chin as the first. John suspected they were related.
The third women seemed to be awake but was laying on her side making odd mewling sounds. John shifted his weight and sidled over to her so she was facing him.
“I’m John. Are you hurt?” He said in the same tone as before.
She was dressed differently to the others. Where their clothes were simple they still looked sturdy and well cared for. This women’s clothes looked like hand me downs had been cut into strips and then wrapped to make a short skirt and vest. However, John was fixated by her tail and ears. He resisted the urge to touch them to check if they were real or not. They were both ginger, though the tail had a white tip at the end. Other than the feline appendages everything else about the women seemed human. Her hair was black and cut into a sort of shaggy bob, her skin was cream coloured and lacked fur, and she stood up she would have been a good head and a half shorter than the two sisters. In spite of the animalistic characteristics she was still strikingly sexy, it was like looking at the world’s most realistic cosplay.
Big droplets were forming at the corners of her clenched eyes and her breathing was becoming choked up with sobs. John reached out his hand and placed it gently on her upturned shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.
“Everything is going to be okay. I just need to know if you’re seriously hurt.”
A delicate hand reached up and closed over his and her breathing became a little steadier and her body relaxed a little.
After a short while John looked up and saw that the other two women had gotten to their feet and were looking at him enquiringly.
“I need you to get up now, can you do that for me?”
She nodded and took a deep breath. Her tail twitched and she rolled into a sitting position. Two large eyes fixated on John. The pupils flashed like tiny mirrors and she gave John a wide brittle smile and wiped away a tear from her cheek leaving a smudge of dirt behind. John stood up and, still holding her hand, held the cat girl to her feet.
“What is going on?” John asked.
A dozen more questions were tumbling over in his head, but he managed to keep himself in check. The women with short blond hair spoke first.
“You were supposed to be a weapon.” There was a pointed glance at her sister. “We summoned you by accident. I’m Chloe, my sister is Selphie and that cat is Melanie.”
Melanie was still holding John’s hand and he could feel her wince a little as Chloe called her a cat.
Had John just been abducted and taken to some empty warehouse as part of some sort of frat house hazing that got the wrong address he would have demanded he be taken home and given a black eye to anyone who raised an objection. After a stint in the Navy right out of school he had had his fill of pranks and hazing, and had the skills to make someone feel the extent of his displeasure. However, finding himself in an alien field with three beautiful women, one of whom was some here-to-for unknown evolutionary offshoot, he was at a loss. He was torn between being returned home and wanting to find out more, not to mention needing an in depth explanation of exactly how he had been ‘summoned’. In the end his a course of action was forced upon him.
Out of the dark came five men. They had approached silently until the last possible moment when a clinking of metal on metal drew the attention of John and the girls.
John turned around to face the newcomers, placing the distant city to his back. He noticed the reaction of the women who bunched up behind him, suddenly on edge.
“Fuck. Savages. It’s a scouting party,” exclaimed Chloe in a whisper.
“We need to run,” Selphie hissed back.
John planted his feet wide, with his hands on his hips, his jaw set and head up. He had no idea what was going on, but the girls behaviour indicated that this was not a good situation to be in. However, he took the feelings of uncertainty and doubt that were swarming his mind and shoved them right down inside himself.
The five men were fanned out in a semi circle with about six feet between each of them. They had a look that reminded John of Vikings. Not the horn-on-the-helmet kind that were invented by Wagner and copied by Bugs Bunny, but the real thing. Hard men who started out with a simple standard issue sword, helmet and leather armour worn over a tunic that had been added to in a hodgepodge manner as each of them had found pieces of metal chain mail and plate armour. One of the men was armed with a spear, one with an axe and the others had swords drawn. The were all pale blue in skin tone. John remembered the woad worn by the Scots in the Braveheart movie to be considerably darker in tone and only painted in certain areas and patterns and he quickly wondered if he was looking at another new human-like race.
“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” John called out when the men were about ten feet away which he felt was close enough.
“You are all prisoners. Anyone who resists will be killed!” called out one of the men with swords.
The other two sword holders sheathed their weapons and walked towards John and the women. The were pulling lengths of rope from their belts which seemed to have been pre tied into loops, much like modern police with zip ties. It was obvious they were not willing to negotiate.
“Girls, run!” shouted John.
At the same time John lifted his arms into a boxing pose to help his balance and kicked out with his right leg. He couldn’t kick high or at his quickest with his boots on and no warm up but it didn’t matter as he was aiming for the low-level target. His leg shot out at the knee cap of the weight-bearing leg of the man to his right. John’s aim was good and the thick heel of his boot landed just off centre of its target. The struck man feel to the ground as his knee buckled inwards beneath him.
Bringing his right leg back to the ground John had stepped into a traditional fighting stance and immediately struck out with a strong right hook to catching the left hand opponent on the corner of the jaw just below the ear, sending him stumbling to one side out of John’s reach.
With the element of surprised used up the axe man stepped in with his arm already swinging down, the axe aimed expertly at the middle of John’s head. John swung his leading arm up and around in a right to left ark. It was an instinctual move that was designed to catch the arm of an opponent attaching with a knife or blunt object like a pool cue. Unfortunately, this time John’s forearm caught the blow of the axe head.
There was an explosion of pain. Time slows down at moments like these. The brain shuts down non essential functions and pumps chemicals through you so that you have the best chance of survival. This meant that John had the opportunity to observe his own surprise at the pain he was feeling. The axe had not in fact cut into his arm. Instead it was as if every muscle in his body had simultaneously cramped up the released again with a blast of burning energy.
Magical energy exploded out of John just as the axe would have struck his arm. It knocked the four remaining men off their feet. Fortunately by this time the three women had begun running back they way they had come from the city and were far enough away from John that the blast only made them stumble.
John quickly rubbed the spot on his arm that would have been struck, checking to see if he was injured, and was surprised to find no evidence of the impact. His arm was, as was his hold body, covered in goosebumps, and all his fine hairs were standing on end.
“Shit.” John hissed to himself. “Fuck.”
The five men on the ground were writhing in pain, their screams and grunts punctuated by cursing. John looked back over his shoulder and was just able to see the women off in the distance through the dark. Looking at the men on the ground, he quickly cycled through options.
