Resurgence of Ancient Darkness (12 page)

Once I was sure everyone understood the plan, I ordered Rocky to take the Shadow Fox into range for our first assault team. Meanwhile, Spectra and I cast Night Wraith Form and flew over to the lead ship. Once aboard it I was happy to see it was far more normal than the previous robotic ships we visited. This one had crewmembers, working stations and all the normal things one would expect on a vessel of war. We moved to the bridge and waited.

It was not long before we received reports over our telepathic network that the first team had begun its work. While we waited on their bridge, sounds of panic came over the comm. A man, who I assumed was their captain, said, “Shut their blabbering off and find those cowards.”

“
Spectra, let’s get someplace where you can safely summon,
” I sent.

“
This way,”
she sent back and headed down through the floor of the bridge. Soon we were in an equipment locker of some kind almost directly below the bridge. “
If you can keep anyone from spying on us, I can cast here.
”

I quickly cloaked the room in darkness and sent back, “
Done.”

I felt a chill pass through me as I watched her cast. Ghastly creatures from the Spirit Realm appeared around us and floated through the walls, spreading out through the ship. Most of them were harmless, but several of them would be deadly to mundanes who would have no way of fighting back.

I watched through Spectra’s eyes as she monitored the progress of her summoned creatures. They all radiated an aura of fear and coldness wherever they went. The battle-hardened crewmembers of the cruiser quaked in fear as the mostly harmless creatures flew through their duty stations. The few deadly spirits that she summoned killed men and women randomly throughout the vessel, which helped to solidify the state of fear throughout the craft.

“
Master Dusty, there is a sorcerer here!”
came a panicked message over our telepathic network.

“
We have done enough. Everyone, retreat back to the Shadow Fox
,” I sent back.

“
Do you want me to gate us back?
” asked Spectra.

“
No, not yet. Let’s pay a visit to the bridge. Gather your friends for it
,” I sent. “
Send them ahead of us to soften up the crowd a bit.”

Once I was sure there was a suitable level of panic, I teleported back onto the bridge, leaving Spectra safely hidden in case I needed help. Once on the bridge I quickly cast an ice storm that disabled most of the crew right away. Something was very odd about the ice storm, but I could not place what had happened right then, and I couldn’t afford the time to think much about it. “Stand down your weapons or you will all die at the hands of my lovely assistants,” I said, gesturing to the spirits flying around me.

One brave man started to aim his gun at me and fell over dead as a ghost passed through him from behind. Two more tried the same thing and met similar fates.

“Anyone else want to die?” I asked.

“What do you want?” demanded the captain.

“To deliver a message,” I said. “You, and what is left of your men, are to get out of this section of space and never again threaten my people. If you do, you will suffer greatly!”

For effect I cast another ice storm and teleported down to where Spectra was. “
Spectra, gate us out of here,
” I sent. The second ice storm was also wrong in some way. It was effective, if anything more effective than I expected, but didn’t act the way I was used to.

Once we were safely back on the Fox, I asked, “What is the status of the sorcerer?”

“Not much of one, apparently. He is currently pinned down by two fire elementals,” said Rocky.

“Is that the only one?” I asked.

“Yes, Master. He appears to be,” said Rocky.

“Good,” I said. I looked over the reports from the strike teams, and it appeared to be a complete success. Everyone had returned unharmed, and the creatures we had summoned were still wreaking havoc. “How far can we get before the elementals fade away?”

“Master, they are not going away,” said Darkstone, who had led one of the strike teams.

“What do you mean? Distance always cancels them, I thought?” I asked.

“Master, it used to, but apparently it now applies only to control,” he said.

Great, another change in how magic works. Where will it end? “Are you telling me that those elementals will fight indefinitely?”

“No, Master. Eventually the spells will run their course and they will fade away,” said Darkstone.

“Spectra, what about your ghosts?” I asked.

“I think they will stay until I send them home,” she said. “It’s hard to know for sure, though.”

“Then let’s fly in range of each of the ships and end the spells, or no one will be left alive to deliver our messages.”

As Rocky flew us in range so that the spells could be canceled, Spectra asked, “What about the sorcerer?”

“I doubt that he is really a sorcerer. He’s probably just a lost magus trying to make his way in this world alone,” I said.

“Then maybe we should pick him up?” asked Spectra.

“Too late for that,” said Darkstone. “It seems he was unable to handle the two fire elementals, Master.”

“Ugh, how long have I been unconscious?” I asked. My head felt as if it contained an army of angry woodpeckers. No, that was not quite right. It was more like multiple armies of angry woodpeckers that had declared war on each other and were determined to fight to the death.

“Master Shadow, it has been two days,” said the doctor. “We kept you asleep until your body could sufficiently heal itself and rebuild some of your illuminescence stores.”

“
Flame?
” I sent.

I had barely had time to finish the thought when she teleported into the room. “Shadow!”

“Flame, you know the rule about teleporting,” I chided her.

“You left me in charge, so I dropped that rule just for this one trip,” she said.

I started to laugh a little, but it caused the pain in my head to spike. “Doctor, can you do something about this pounding in my head?”

“Sure,” he said. He injected me with something that almost instantly began to reduce the pain. “Now, I expect it will be a week or so until you are back to normal. Until then, get lots of rest and eat well.”

“Thanks, Doctor,” I said. “So, Flame, what happened?”

“Well, after we separated I led our forces, and we pushed through to take over engineering,” she started and then filled me in on her victorious battles to take control of the station. “Once we had that under our control we called in back-up, and I brought you and the other wounded back here for treatment.”

“Well done! I am proud of you!” I said. She blushed a little, but did not say anything. “What is the status of the station now?”

“I sent several teams over to sweep the rest of the station, and we didn’t find anyone else alive. Stalker recommended we power down the whole complex, so that is what we did.”

“Excellent! Have someone contact Bill and tell him about this base. The navy could use it, I am sure.”

“Oh, one more thing,” she said. “Dusty called, looking for orders. I talked with him this morning and told him to meet us here.”

“That will take weeks,” I said. I reached for the comm station next to my bed and said, “Bridge, this is Master Shadow. Set a course to intercept the Shadow Fox so that we can pick them up sooner.”

“Yes, Master,” came the reply.

“Now, Flame, will you help me back to our quarters and see to that good food that the doctor just ordered me to eat?”

“Sure!” she said.

As we walked back to our room she brought me up to date on Dusty’s adventures. Near the end of the story, she said something that caught my attention. “Wait: why did they have to fly back to cancel the summon spells?”

“It seems they stumbled on another change in magic. Summoned creatures now stay until destroyed or sent away. Distance only affects control.”

“That is a huge change!” I said. I tried to get my mind around the impact that that would have. “What about the death of the summoner? Does that still destroy summoned creatures?”

“I don’t know. They didn’t say anything about that.”

“I have to contact Grandmaster Vydor right away.” If killing the caster did not banish the summoned creatures any more, that would change all our standard battle tactics. We always focused on the fact of “Kill the summoner, kill the summoned.”

“Easy, my love. Let’s get you to our quarters first,” she said. “You can contact him while I cook.”

“Yes, that is probably wise.” I was starting to get really tired from the walk. It was obviously going to take some time to get back to a reasonable level of health.

When we were back in our quarters I used my communications ring to reach out to Grandmaster Vydor. Once he had responded, I filled him in on our mission so far, and the changes that Dusty had reported.

“
It seems that we are finding changes faster and faster now
,” I sent.

“
Yes, but I do not know for certain if that means that changes are happening faster, or we are finding them faster because we have more magi
,” he sent.

“
I suspect it is a little of both,
” I sent.

“
Quite possibly, but I think we are nearing the end of the massive changes. I believe that from this point forward there will be only minor changes. The only caveat is that I am not sure we have yet found all the major changes that have taken place,”
he sent.

“
Why do you say that?
” I asked.

“
From what I can tell it appears that magic is reverting back to the way it was before reality was torn. For example, there is a legend about an ancient magus summoning a golem and leaving it unattended for a while. The golem continued to follow its master’s orders to dig until he returned to banish it,”
he sent.
“Apparently it created a massive desert in the process.”

“
Interesting. That means summoning is now the way it was originally, but how does that tell you that the changes are almost complete?
” I asked.

“
If I accept that the weave is reverting to the way it once was, then I can look at the differences we have observed in the weave over the past several decades and extrapolate backwards and forwards. We know that around ten thousand years ago all magic was cut off, and we know how much magic we have now. With that I can make an educated guess at where it will end,
” he sent.

“
That is fascinating, but how do you know the healing rate has remained constant?
” I asked.

“
Until we closed the tears in the weave it was perfectly constant. Our actions caused a massive surge in the rate of change. I can only assume it was constant for the time between the tearing of the weave and the closing of the tears because it was constant for the entire period we could watch it,”
he sent. “
Also, it seems to be trying to stabilize itself.
”

I thought for a moment about what he had said. It seemed logical; then a thought occurred to me. “
Grandmaster, you make it sound as if the weave is alive?
”

“
I am not convinced it is not. It certainly acts much like a living thing,
” he sent.

It was two long, painful weeks of healing before I felt that I was back to normal. Most of that time I was forced to stay in bed, as any exertion brought on dizziness and nausea. Our doctor was surprised at the length of the recovery time, but he put it down to our lack of experience with treating magical injuries.

The weeks had passed without anything of significance happening other than the Shadow Fox returning from its mission. Once back on the Nevermore, Dusty told his crew to take a few days off and be ready for more training when they got back.

When the doctor had finally cleared me to exercise again, I headed to the officers’ gym on the Nevermore where I stumbled on to a scene that I would have never expected to see. There I saw Dusty sparring with Spectra, and Lythiran was acting as his coach.

I watched quietly for a while, not wanting to interrupt their session, but I was immensely curious about it. Dusty was obviously a rank amateur, but Spectra moved with a grace and speed that told volumes about her skill. She was obviously holding back and only using very predictable attacks for Dusty’s sake, but the precision with which she executed them gave away her skill.

Dusty’s movements were fluid and controlled, but far too slow to be effective. He had obviously been taught only the very early training moves in how to use his body as a tool in combat. His natural flexibility helped him greatly, and I expected that if he kept up his training he would eventually become a deadly warrior someday.

When they had finished, Dusty noticed me and said, “Hi, Master Shadow!”

“Hello, Dusty. I hope I did not distract you from your training,” I said.

“No, Master,” he said. “Lythiran here would not allow me to be distracted.”

“You know, not that long ago you would have fought hard to stay out of the gym, and here you are now fighting hard in the gym. What has changed?” I asked.

Dusty looked at Spectra, and I could sense telepathic communication pass between them. They were hiding something. I could not even begin to guess what or why.

“
Master Shadow, may we speak with you in private?”
asked Dusty.

“
Of course. Meet me in my quarters in an hour?”
I suggested. I thought that more polite than saying, “Go and take a shower first.”

“
That sounds good, Master. See you then,”
he sent.

So they were hiding something. I wondered what, but took comfort in the fact that it appeared they were going to tell me about it.

While I was warming up, I said, “Lythiran, are you interested in sparring with me? I have been on sick leave too long and need to stretch my limbs.”

“Certainly, Master,” he said.

We fought for quite a while, until my strength gave out. He was far superior to me, not only in strength and speed, but also in skill. I was no match for him, but he never indicated if that bothered him. Instead, he kept offering me pointers.