Emergence: Return of Magic book 1 (2 page)

Sean Anders thought of himself as a pretty average
guy.  He was in his mid-thirties, had a stable job in Los Angeles, and
lived alone just south east of the city.  That last part had saved his
life when the invasion came.  He’d been holed up in his apartment for
weeks now, the power had gone out two days ago and he was running low on
food.  At least the water was still working, he hadn’t even needed to use
the water bottles in the survival kits he’d bought last year.

Though he was starving, it wasn’t really safe out there,
he’d heard a lot of gunfire since the aliens had arrived.  So far he had
resisted the urge to go out and find a store, to get his own share of the
loot.  The longer he resisted the hunger, the less there would be left for
him to claim, but he didn’t want to die for a loaf of bread either.

He was pretty sure the aliens wanted the planet, and the humans
on it were simply being… forcibly evicted.  It was the only thing that
made sense, they weren’t really harming the planet too much, just removing its
current residents.

Sean wasn’t a big man, he was five foot nine, maybe a
hundred and fifty pounds, and wasn’t much to look at.  Which explained, at
least to him, why he lived alone.  He’d never had that much luck with
woman in the past.  Still, the point was he was alone, and was starting to
go a little stir crazy as his stomach growled and tightened.

It was nighttime, there was a storm outside, and something
felt… different.  Ever since the storm had woken him an hour ago, he could
feel… something in the walls, something that appealed to him.  He’d been
trying to figure out what the hell it could be, and the only conclusion he
could come to was there were mice or rats in there, and somehow, he could feel
their presence, their vitality.

He knew that was insane, yet he felt it.  The knowledge
of what he felt was… instinct.  He was so hungry. 

He went into the kitchen and grabbed a hammer, then went
over to the wall where he could feel them, scurrying around.  He aimed a
foot or so above the floorboard, and tore into wall with the claw of his
hammer, and pulled, creating a hole in the sheetrock wall of his apartment.

He felt the presence start to scurry away inside the wall,
and in frustration he reached out to that vitality and pulled… with his
mind.  He gasped in a sick feeling pleasure at the same time he was
revolted, as he felt the creature’s vitality being ripped away and pulled into
his own body.  His mind sparked, and he could remember gathering food,
eating, hiding in the walls, all the things a rat might do.  It was
extremely vague though.

He felt… good, he was suddenly filled with energy, more awake
and aware, and although his stomach was still tight, he wasn’t nearly as
hungry.

The idea disgusted him, but he had to know for sure. 
He put his arm through the hole in the wall and reached down and over, even
without the spark of vitality, he could still feel something.  An
emptiness.  His hand found a tail and he made a face as he pinched the
tail and pulled it out.  It was a rat.

His mind spun, somehow he’d reached out and stolen this
rat’s life, taken it into himself, he felt scared at the thought, what the hell
had happened to him?  He also felt guilty, he’d never killed anything in
his life outside of the occasional spider.  That rat had its own life,
probably a better one than he had, maybe the poor guy had a mate.  He
wondered if it could be undone, and imagined filling that empty spot that he
could still feel.

He screamed and dropped the rat as it started to squirm in
his hand.  It fell to the floor and landed on its feet, and turned to look
up at him.  He was frozen in horror as he stared back down at it.  He
could still feel the rats in the walls throughout the building, and this one
felt… different.  It still wasn’t alive, there was no spark of life, but
he could feel the vitality, the energy in it, and it felt like… his.

He walked over to the sink and turned on the water, and
washed his hands while he was lost in thought, and then filled the glass with
water.  He took a sip, and spat it out.  He brought the glass closer
to the candle, the water looked clean, pure, the same it always had.  Yet,
he could feel the small amount of life in it.  Bacteria, virus, whatever
it was, he could feel it.

He shrugged, pulled the life out of the water, and then
drank it down.  He felt… better.  Not even really hungry anymore at
all with the water sloshing in his stomach.  He sat down, and then noticed
the rat again, it had followed him around the apartment, some part of him had
felt it happening but his conscious mind hadn’t acknowledged it until
now. 

What had he become?  Did the aliens do something
new?  What was this?

He felt another life force then, a large one, it was human
and seemed a beacon to him.  Life.  He was tempted for a minute, if a
rat made him feel this good, what would a human’s life do for him?  He
felt a surge of self-disgust go through him, he was no murderer.  It came
closer, and then he heard a knock on the door.

It wasn’t a sound he was used to, and it startled him. 
He could feel the life on the other side of the door, who would be knocking
this time of night?  The knock came again a little louder, and he heard a
frantic female voice.

“Please, help me.  There are men and they,” the voice
cut off sounding half panicked.

He felt conflicted.  The desperate nature of the plea
tugged at his manly instincts to help.  There was a distressed female at
the door.  He knew it was instinct, and it was a feeling he’d never had
before.  He was not accustomed to women coming to him for help.  The
reason for his conflict though, was that her life force was the only one he
felt, whoever the men are, or were, they weren’t close.  His ability,
whatever it was, reached a good distance.

He stood up and walked over to the door and tried the
peephole.  Of course, he couldn’t see a damned thing, the power was
out.  He only had light in here from all the candles, which is probably
what tipped off the woman someone was in his apartment, the light from under
his door was probably visible in the hallway.

She said in a whimper, “Please help me.”

Something in the scared voice tugged at him, men were just
built that way.  He opened the door which flooded the hallway with soft
candle light.  He froze for a moment, she was gorgeous.  So much so
that he was tongue tied and just stared, she was the kind of woman who had
never given him a second glance in his lifetime.  Out of his league just
didn’t come close to covering it.

She had long dark curly brown hair, doe eyes, full pink
lips, and lightly tanned skin.  Her face was stunningly beautiful. 
She looked to be in her early twenties, and she was wearing a tight skirt and a
clingy shirt that had been torn in a few very interesting places.  Her
body was on the voluptuous side and the clothes left very little to the
imagination.

She sobbed and jumped forward into his arms.

He didn’t entirely know what to do, so he put his arms
around her and made a soothing noise.  He was also getting hard, she felt
really good in his arms.  Not that he would ever act on that, but he
couldn’t help his body’s natural reaction to such a beautiful female form.

His voice wasn’t confident, but neither did he stammer,
“You’re safe, what’s your name?”

She said in a cold hard voice, completely devoid of fear or
upset, “Cynthia,” and then he felt a sharp sting in his side.

He fell back on the floor, and looked up.  He saw a
knife in her hand, and a feral grin on her beautiful face.  What the
fuck?  He should have known better, but between his protective instincts
and thinking with his dick he never questioned the hug.  Damn he was an
idiot.

She stalked past him and started trashing his kitchen.

“Where’s the food!”

The bitch had stabbed him for his food?  Led right to
his apartment because of the candles, he should have put the throw rug across
to block the light.  He knew most of the apartments around him were
abandoned now.  He could feel his life force draining out with the blood,
and he felt a surge of anger.  She stabbed him, and was letting him bleed
out, fuck that.  He wished he could hit her.

Then he heard a rat’s squeak and the woman screamed. 
He could taste her blood on his tongue, no… that was the rat, his life force
connected them somehow.  Apparently it had automatically acted on his
wishes. 
Good rat zombie
he thought at it, and he laughed a little
hysterically.  He was feeling a little queasy, running out of life
force.  He needed more, and while he wasn’t a murderer, surely this would
be self-defense.

“You bitch, you’re the fucking food,” he growled in pain.

He reached out for that bright beacon of life in her chest,
and pulled…

Kurien Oakleaf stood at the window and stared out at the
storm.  The return was over a thousand years in the coming.  He’d
been born in the other realm, his mother, Sianne, had been but a child when the
elves and dragons left the prime plane to escape humanity, to preserve their
race and the world.  The decision to leave had been his grandmother’s,
Brielle.

But something was wrong, it had been several hours, and
Merlin still had not returned to the council chambers to update them on the
affairs of the world.  He’d never met the man of course, but he’d heard
all the stories.

“Anything mother?” he asked deferentially.

Sianne shook her head, “I cannot sense him at all.”

Trielle, Brielle’s successor as the high priestess on the
council sighed, “I can feel his power only, I believe the mantel has been
passed.”

There was dead silence for a few long moments, the others in
the room shocked by the statement.

Lianthenielima, or Lian for short, was the only remaining
living council member from that time, his voice rumbled with discontent.

“Something must have gone very wrong.  We must send out
a mission to determine what happened, and the current status of the
world.  We should find the old sorcerer’s successor as well, though why
hasn’t he come in his stead?”

Trielle answered, “I don’t know, except
she
is very
far to the south east.  Merlin was not with her when he cast the spell to
rejoin the realms.  I can only assume this wasn’t planned, and cost him
his life.  It is possible his successor doesn’t even understand her fate.”

He shuddered, and wondered what would cause the great
sorcerer to give his life, whatever it was must have taken him unawares.

Sianne asked, “Is that all?”

Trielle sighed, “Perhaps I will glean more soon. 
Without magic in the prime realm, the gods themselves would have been cut off
as well.  I fear for now even Charites is in the dark, though it won’t
take her very long to learn all there is to know.  Only a question in how
much she will share with her priestesses.”

Sianne nodded and turned to him, “Kurien, I want you to lead
a small party, and search for the new bearer of the mantel, also study the
world and what changes you see, and report them back.  It was Merlin’s
intention to inform humanity before we returned, but we can’t depend on
that.  Most likely, if this wasn’t planned, that wasn’t done.  Avoid
combat if you can, this is a scouting mission only, am I clear?”

He nodded, annoyed.  He was hardly a child, he’d
reached his majority over seventy years ago, yet she still acted as if he were
a hundred and forty at times.  He supposed it was just worry.

“I will do so, and be careful.”

Lian said, “Good, I will send Brianthenia with you.”

He nodded, Bria was a good friend, even if she was a different
species.  The Elves and Dragons have always been allies.  Ironically,
that tight bond was mostly thanks to the humans giving them a common
enemy.  Between their elemental magic, and of course teeth and claws in
their other form, and his own nature magic and sharp sword, he thought they’d
be ready for anything.

Trielle added in a thoughtful voice, “I will send Arielle.”

He almost groaned, but held his tongue.  Arielle was
old enough, but just barely past her age of majority, though he had to admit she
was a talented priestess.  Still, he usually felt… hunted whenever she was
in the same room as him, and now that she was of age… and beyond beautiful, it
was more than a little temptation to deal with.  She would also enable
them to keep in touch easier with the council, she could speak directly to her
high priestess with magic, while he would only be able to send one way messages
through nature, a bird or other animal.

He said without a trace of his misgivings in his voice,
“Very well, I’ll go prepare.”

Trielle said, “The storm should pass in three hours as the
magic equalizes and the realm steadies from our return, I’d advise you wait
until then to leave.”

He just nodded, and then looked out the window.  Their
return was to have been one of peace, with the hope of finally living with the
humans in harmony.  Relative harmony anyway, some conflict was always
expected.  He wondered just what they would face out there.  He also
worried about the bearer of the mantle, what would she be like, and would she
follow in Merlin’s footsteps and work for peace, or take a different path
altogether.

He would find out soon.

Tarrock growled as he floated up off of the captain’s chair,
in the dark.

“Report!”

The science officer said, “We’ve lost power captain.”

He growled, “Idiot!  Of course we lost power, tell me
why.”

He heard his first officer, and lifelong friend Garrock
snicker lightly under his breath.

He grabbed his chair with his lower limbs to secure him, and
put a hand on his knife.  He was big for his race, the Mateera. 
Almost eight feet tall, greenish blue skin, and four arms.  His black eyes
narrowed at the science officer and promised death if he didn’t get information
and now.

The science officer replied, “Yes captain.  There was
an energy wave, of a type unknown to our science.  It originated in the
Northern hemisphere of the planet, in a mountainous region.  It spread
across the planet.  Captain, I know this is going to sound crazy, but
there were many life forms, both animal and plant, added to our scans as the
wave passed.

“I can’t tell you what the energy was, but we were the lucky
ones’ sir.”

“Explain,” Tarrock demanded.

He’d really like to know why being powerless and caught in
Earth’s gravity field was lucky.  They’d been at a fairly low orbit to
burn out the life in the cities, and it required constant anti-gravity drive
support to maintain their altitude.

“The wave, when it hit us, our reactor power output dropped
like a stone and cut off.  The energy that hit us made the reactor…
unstable.  Before we lost power, I saw our other two ships explode
sir.  Their reactors, for some reason, did the opposite and energy
increased, causing an overload.”

He frowned.  He supposed about to die was luckier than
dead, but not by much.

“Options?”

The officer shook his head, “The large wave of energy has
passed, but there is still a field of it present around the planet from the
surface to up into the higher orbitals.  It’s disrupting all of our
electrical systems.”

He grunted, “All of them?  Why did the humans wait if
they could destroy us?”

The science officer responded, “It disrupted their
technology as well, when the wave exploded outward, all the artificial lights
went out across the planet.  Communications stopped as well, and all their
satellites went offline.”

Shit.

He ordered, “We need to abandon ship before we crash.”

He could feel gravity start to reestablish, but he knew it
wasn’t their systems, it was the planet.  Unfortunately, his ship wasn’t exactly
oriented right, and it felt like he was tilted about thirty degrees.

Garrock asked, “How?  We have no power in the escape
craft either.”

He growled, “Jump packs.  We won’t have any power to
maneuver, or aim, but the parachute should deploy without power, and keep us
from reaching terminal velocity.”

The three of them headed off the bridge, and moving as
quickly as they could toward the landing bay, they grabbed every crewman they
could find on the way, with no other way to pass orders.  It seemed to
take forever, as they had to pry open every closed hatch.  At least the
tilt favored them, as they moved toward their destination.

When they arrived at the landing bay they had to pry open
the lockers, and he grabbed his drop suit.  The drop suit had built in
shields, anti-gravity, and propulsion, as well as an emergency parachute should
power be lost.  The parachute was all they had left, and once they secured
their helmets, they would have a limited air supply, probably only two minutes.

They waited for another thirty seconds, the science officer
convinced him they weren’t low enough to survive yet, and then he took a look
around.  His ship was large, and housed thousands of crewmen.  There
were only a little over two hundred in the space.  The rest must be
trapped in various sections, and he had no way to give orders.

It pained him to leave most of his crew behind, they were
his responsibility, but they simply didn’t have time to search for them, the
ship was going down fast.

Still, he would save what he could, establish a base on the
planet, and hold out for rescue.  His world was years away, even though
they could travel six hundred times the speed of light, so it might be a while.

He growled, “Helmets, now.”

He put his own on, and then counted an extra three seconds
before he pulled the manual release for the airlock doors.  Anyone who was
more than three seconds slower than him, didn’t deserve to survive.  The
doors flew away and he ran after them, hurling himself away from his
ship.  He freefell for a while, and then pulled his chute.  He looked
around, he was surrounded by his people, and he was determined to make the
people of this world pay for their audacity.

He just needed to figure out how to do it without any
technology at all…