A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1) (25 page)

“Will
they be any use?  Estella seems a bit... too nice to be of any use in a fight.”

I
thought back to how hard I had been hit in the Blight.  “I don't know about the
álfar, but Faramond is the strongest thing I have ever seen in pure physical
terms.  Not too swift, but strong.  If he is willing to help out I think you'll
be pleasantly surprised.  As long as we don't ask him to walk and chew gum at
the same time.”

She
gave me a skeptical look.  Maybe I was still bitter about our first meeting but
he definitely wasn't a rocket scientist.

I
heard a cooking alarm faintly chime in the kitchen.  “Oh crud!  The foods
finally ready and our guests left.  I better get a care package ready.  Want to
walk it over to our friends?”  Wouldn't want to break that odd hospitality oath
I had been suckered into the first night.  I suppose I had better have Jeremy
research what was expected in ancient Norway.  “You girls can gossip about your
favorite gowns.”  Mei glared at me.  I held up my arms defensively.  “Or
favorite methods to kill wizards...”

Once
I was alone I took my shirt off and examined my chest with my finger.  No pain
anymore, but what the heck caused the horrible burning?   I looked at the rune
that been branded into me a few minutes before I noted a change.  There was a
flaw in the design.  The perfectly proportioned lines delineating the “human”
rune now had a shadow down the middle.  Somehow the engraved tooth had placed a
wedge in the trap the ancient dragon had left me in.

I
immediately tried to take on my own shape and found myself on the floor
writhing in pain.  Gasping, trying to get my breath back, I nodded to myself. 
The rune was still in place.  Taking a more cautious approach, I increased my
size slowly.  I grew to my normal human maximum size of nine feet with only a
slight pang in my chest and only came to the hard agonizing limit at twelve
feet kneeling on the floor partly from the ceiling and partly from the burning
of the rune.  I barely even took note of the tearing of my pants.  Not good but
better than before.   My swords would actually look proportional in that form
as opposed to merely cartoonish.

I
shrunk to my usual form and formed the long sharp fingernails I had been
constrained to use, then gradually shifted them to true talons, edged and
extending five inches long.  I clicked them together and ignored the steady
throbbing aching over my heart.  Now those were weapon grade talons.  A bit
small due to my present size but overall I was happy. 

Finally
looking at the mirror I attempted to take on some of my native
characteristics.  I managed the slit pupils and vaguely scaly look, but I
couldn't get my jaw to extend enough to accept significantly larger teeth without
getting lightheaded from pain.  Still, it was better than anything else in over
a year.  I finally stopped after an hour of testing my new limits, aching but
satisfied. 

Now
that I had tired myself out again and the thrill of exploration had faded, I
floated my rune inlaid tooth towards my eyes to get a better look.  Sure enough,
the runes for 'truth' and 'hunt' were chiseled in a very neat hand on the side
of the surface.  Runes were a very old form of magic.  It predated all other
forms I knew of and, like most things magical, the older it was the more
powerful it was.  Supposedly the oldest entities created them soon after the
fires of creation had cooled and the runic language still was bound to these
primal entities.  A very dangerous magic indeed.  The myths I read said that
Odin sacrificed something to gain knowledge of this power.  It varies from
story to story.  Maybe it was his eye or maybe it was being nailed to the World
Tree.  Regardless, he supposedly learned it, but he certainly wasn't the first.

Examining
the tooth carefully, I could see that it had attempted to force me into my true
form upon contact.  I used my senses to carefully weigh the enchantment in my
tooth with the rune on my chest.  Mr. Evil was a powerful son of a bitch.  The
'human' rune easily dwarfed the power of the tooth.  Even if I stabbed the
tooth into the heart of the rune, and lived through it, it would likely just
shatter the tooth.  If I ever got truly desperate I suppose I could try it but
I wasn't that far gone yet.  The release of conflicting energies could be
horrific and very probably lethal.  Maybe if I could figure out some way to
fortify it first.

Checking
the time, I was vaguely surprised Mei hadn’t come back.  I hadn’t heard any
screams so, hopefully, the women were getting along like a house on fire.  I
winced as I thought about another house destroyed and walked over to the
counter where I kept Jeremy’s list of jobs and added ‘clean carpet’.  He may
not even invoice me for it considering it was his blood the cleaning service
would be removing. 

I
slipped on a new pair of pants, shrugged my shirt back on, tucked it in as I
went to the basement for a few supplies and then up back to the living room.  I
had been studying the new texts a lot in the last day and it was time to try them
out, just so I could settle the thoughts and theories racing around my head.  I
moved over to the vintage holo system I had and looked at it.  It was a small
box that looked more like a VCR box than a communication and entertainment
system.  I shook my head as I recalled all the times blue smoke had wafted from
the seams and the despairing looks Jeremy had given me as he realized once
again that he needed to fix it.

Kneeling,
I laid out the assortment of small vials I had brought up with me as well as a
tiny gas burning crucible.  I quickly mixed a bit of powered silver, mercury
with a dab of my blood and waited for them liquefy.  My blood would be the
binding material, even though it was the thinnest of the liquid compounds it
would be the last to vaporize.  It shared my own resistance to heat.  I only
needed a pinch of energy to enhance my immunity to heat and keep the mercury
from evaporating off too soon. Once the materials had come to a boil, I dipped
my finger into the vessel to ensure it was at the proper consistency.  It was,
so I brought it up to my lips and gulped it into my mouth.  The silver tasted
delicious.  I can only imagine that it was how humans felt about chocolate. 
Ignoring the flavor, I swished with the pleasantly warm liquid twice and spat
it out.  It was still barely simmering, which was important.  Being what I am I
can take a few short cuts and bypass some very expensive and complicated
alchemy equipment but it took a bit of practice.  The first two attempts ended
with me pouring the congealing liquids into a waste box.  The third time I was
lucky and the liquids cooled into a thick yet homogeneous gel.  I considered
this most fortuitous, because I certainly had not been practicing alchemy
except the bare minimum required for my other endeavors.  I was going by what I
had read from the tomes, educated guesses and my instincts.

Forming
my forefinger nail into a short but sharp talon, I dipped it into the simmering
mixture and began to draw.  A small circle with various symbols and
interconnecting lines.  It was distantly related to the ward I had inscribed on
Jeremy's wall to keep aura effects out but with what I had learned in the books
I was able to make it a bit more basic.  Ideally this ward could completely
cancel all magical effects in a small area and prevent any spells from working
on the object or area it was affixed to.  My skills weren't up to that
challenge yet, but this crude attempt should... hopefully, allow this device to
be resistant to the damaging effects of all the practice I was conducting in
the basement, trying to get my magical skill up to par.  I was really getting
tired of not knowing if I could order groceries that day or would have to walk
to the store.

Once
I was done and the liquids had fully frozen into solidity, I examined the
ward.  Not bad for a first try.  The circles were almost perfect, the lines
just about spot on.  My senses detected that I could have applied the energy a
bit more evenly, but it may just do what I hoped.  If not, Jeremy would have to
scrounge the second-hand stores for a replacement.  If this worked I may be
able to put it on Jeremy's communicator so he could stop glaring at me whenever
he had to replace it.  I wasn't sure if it would work on the newer quantum
circuits, but I had to start somewhere.  It actually looked attractive, almost
artsy.  Out of place on my communicator terminal box, but pretty.

The
next few days passed pretty calmly.  I couldn't do much without more
information that the shifters and vampires were already gathering.  Jeremy and
Mei traded information while I listened with half an ear.  He would then fiddle
around with the communicator in the holo mode to keep track of the
information.  Despite my active research into the workings of circles, it continued
to function, which was a promising indication for my studies.  The vampires
hadn't sent anyone yet so I assumed they were still looking.

Meanwhile,
I was keeping myself busy.  I had long ago memorized the books I had raided,
but I still picked them up and studied them.  Going over the more esoteric
parts and trying to tease out understanding.  I even tried a bit of psychometry,
but my poor skills in that particular school of extra sensory perception were
sadly lacking and it didn't really help much.   Still I studied the tomes,
practiced incorporating the knowledge I was gaining into my existing circles,
and even inscribed a few more on my workshop floor.  I hadn't mastered the
method of linking multiple circles together into a functioning matrix, but I
judged my progress good.

I
occasionally had dinner or lunch with the álfar, but they were quick affairs. 
Mei spent far more time with my new guests and I would often hear the murmur of
their voices from upstairs as I puttered around in the basement workshop.  I
think she had gotten a promise of aid or alliance from them after hearing about
Jin's plans and his likely involvement with the álfar oracles' apocalypse.  My
mind was on other things so I wasn't positive.  One thing I did make time for
was melting down a bar of gold and forming it into a chain.  I affixed a thick
band to the tooth and then attached the chain.  Once I had that I spent an additional
hour gently stroking the metal and carefully folding magic into it. 

While
not a true spell, it was a tried and true method to enhance physical objects to
make them stronger.  The chain may never achieve the indestructible characteristics
that a high-quality magical weapon possessed but after a few sessions of this I
wouldn't need to worry about accidentally snapping the chain if I misjudged my
strength.  I believe most of the older supernatural races did this to their
armor and weapons to make them effective against other supernaturals and modern
technology.  It wasn't going to transform them into the engines of destruction
that a rune weapon could be, but if you could control your energies enough it
was the poor man’s answer to a magical arsenal.  As to why I used gold?  I
really like gold, a lot. 

On
the third day, I paused in my work as I felt the earth tremble for a moment.  I
puzzled over it for a moment feeling the ether surrounding the city within my
range before I came to the conclusion that it may just be circle master's trap
finally going off.  I waved the thought away and went back to work, a book in
one hand and the crucible bubbling away next to me; I readied another attempt
at perfecting my circles.

I
was wrapping up my efforts for the day when I heard an impact at the front of
the house.  Not a knock, a ring or a hello.  It was a definite physical quaking
of the house’s structure.  I feel strongly about damage to my house, so I
hurried to the door.  Mei and Jeremy were out, as were the elf and her shadow. 
I had sort of lost track of time and their schedule so I actually had no idea where
they were.

A
second impact made the house shudder before I finally got the door open.  My
danger sense went off faintly a fraction of a second before a large piece of
the permacrete sidewalk impacted my head forcing me back a step and bounced off
into the yard.  Off balance, I staggered back a few steps before landing
solidly on my butt in the hallway of my house.

Unhurt,
but somewhat baffled, I peered into the yard to see a rather livid Vivian
tearing up my sidewalk and throwing large pieces of debris at my house.  I fed
a little energy into my force field.  I didn't really need it, but anything
that helped confuse people over what was me and what were my abilities was
always welcome.

“Aren't
you a little old for vandalism,” I asked, halfway amused. The other half was
completely confused and a little pissed at the dust and permacrete chips
littering the floor of my home.  Surely the visiting councilwoman had better
thing to do than tear up my sidewalk.  I glanced behind me and became decidedly
less amused to see the scrapes in the finish of my walls.  “Ah, crap!  I didn't
mess up your front door, what did mine do to piss you off?”

The
woman seemed to pause a moment, then took a deep breath.  I noted this for two
reasons.  It did impressive things to her bust line and it seemed a bit
theatrical for an undead thing.  “You are responsible for crippling half our
messenger service.”

I
glanced at her inquisitively, trying to fathom here words.  I didn't remember
even leaving the house for the last few days.  “Could it have been my evil
twin?  I haven't moved in days.”

“So
you have no idea why the couriers sent to you burst into flame when they
approach your house,” she asked, in a low voice, glaring at me.

I
blinked, then noted how she was keeping her distance from the house.  A chuckle
welled up from me.  “Well, what do you know? The new wards worked!  I wasn't
sure the substitute for evil spirits would work on the undead. Or the new
alchemical mix.”  I stood up and approached her closer; noting that the haze I
hadn't really paid attention to before was a thin streamer of smoke coming from
her.  “Awesome!”

I
think I saw a vein in her forehead pulse slightly before she screamed in rage
and took a swipe at me.  Her claws skittered off my field and her hand started
to smoke more heavily as it passed me.  My field went down, it had only a token
amount of energy in it.  She seemed at the limit of tolerance.  “I mean, I am
so sorry, what a horrible thing.  I regret this terrible accident with the wards. 
It’s tragic beyond words.”  At this point, my rather wooden apology was
interrupted by my snicker and I had to turn away to disguise my laugh as a
cough.  I have my doubts how true my acting was.