Chapter 13
I’m getting use to my medieval style lab and find it more relaxing. The city sounds of cars honking and buses rolling by are completely blocked out making uninterrupted sleep a welcomed retreat. When I wanted to really chill out, I’d sit in my lab, close my eyes, and let the troubles of the day melt away.
The pentagram was had become an ordinary fixture now and fit in with my wizardry lifestyle. My lab had an alarm too, and waking up was an entirely different experience than in my bedroom. Instead of environmental music gradually building up with amber light, the wall adjoining my bedroom disappeared and another magical window appeared. This time there was no roster like back on Keob. Instead, there were horses galloping outside what sounded like the Sioux nation in a battle with General Custer.
Honestly, what in the world was I thinking when creating these annoying alarms … and what happened to the wonderful music from last time?
Granted, alarms are designed to be somewhat annoying to get sleepyheads like me out of bed. No matter, because rosters and horses are on the delete list when I figure out how it works.
The smell of eggs and bacon cooking got my attention, so I knew Alura had let herself in. She told me her apartment was located a short distance uptown. I haven’t yet seen it, but it’s on my list of things to do. Being my sister, it seemed only right to have big brother check her place out, and eat her food for a change.
Sally was waiting for me when I came out from the lab. She jumped up placing her paws on my shoulders, nearly knocking me over, and starting licking my face. The pleasant smell of breakfast that had filled the air turned into bad breath reeking from dog biscuits and a variety of other less than appealing foods.
“Remind me to teach you how to use a tooth brush Sally,” I said, which only made her lick my face harder.
“Hey there lazy bones. If you’re nice, I’ll let you have some breakfast,” Alura said, pointing a ketchup tube at me. Otherwise …”
“I surrender el capitán,” I said with my hands raised in defeat. “Glad to see you’re in such a happy mood given that Lupzarro is planning to have us torn into pieces tonight.”
Alura smiled. “Okay, be that way if you want, but I’m going to enjoy this breakfast with or without you.”
Alura lifted a plate in the air moving it side to side and closed her eyes while taking a long deep sniff.
“Yummy ... a healthy body is a healthy mind,” she said and then sat at the table grinning at me.
“I believe you got that backwards sister. It’s a ‘healthy mind is a healthy body’.”
Alura smirked. “Whatever professor, but if you don’t sit down and eat, I’m giving your share to Sally,” she said, causing Sally to wag her tail and watch more intensely for an opportunity to eat my breakfast. “Sally, tell your papa to give you some of his breakfast.”
I gave Sally a piece of bacon. “Be patient with your auntie Alura. She’s a known instigator and disturber of the peace.”
Alura smirked again and pushed her tongue against her check, about to respond, but I got the jump on her.
“You see Sally, some people have little manners when visiting the home of others. Not everyone uses hungry animals as a wedge to make a point.”
I waited for Alura’s comeback, but instead of witty sarcasm, she put her thumb to her nose, stuck out her tongue, and waved her fingers at me. I pretended not to see her and put Sally’s breakfast into her bowl. When I sat down at the table, I stared at the food without eating.
“What’s wrong?” Alura asked.
“Nothing I hope. I’m just waiting to see if Sally survives your cooking before risking it myself.”
Alura arched her eyebrow. “Aren’t you the funny wizard this morning.”
I smiled. “Well, Sally is still standing, so I guess I’ll give it a try,” I said and Alura replied with another stuck out tongue and wag of her fingers.
Huh … Not bad. Food always does seem to taste better when someone else cooks it.
“So, what’s the plan?” I asked.
“Same as last time. Load up and kill the lycanthropes.”
I grinned. “Okay, that’s a simple but good plan, despite having no specific plans and an element of likely doom.”
“You’ll need to replenish your wizard bag. Kyiel can help you with the needed spells. It won’t take more than a couple hours to make them. We’ll also need wolfsbane, which is why Magical Herbs had that package ready to go.”
“How did you know I’d stop at Magical Herbs?”
“Come on Azul. A shoppe around the corner from your apartment with a large Celtic sign saying Magical Herbs … duh, what wizard could resist such a place?”
She had a point. The shoppe was unique and near impossible to miss. Alura was cleaver and had a sense of humor only a brother could love, but predicting where I’d walk is a bit too cleaver.
How did she know I would walk in the direction toward Magical Herbs?
“Wizards tend to travel north when having do directional preference,” she said. “Something to do with magnetic fields. No one knows for certain. I’m sure you were just thinking about that, right?”
“Maybe, and maybe not” I said, stiffening up my posture, unwilling to give Alura the pleasure of knowing she was right, but she knew she was and grinned.
We finished our breakfast and Alura filled me in on Lupzarro’s history. She told me he had his hands in many businesses, especially in Manhattan, ranging from restaurants to multibillion dollar corporations. He even owned some stock of ZWC, not enough to have any influence, but still owned some just the same. In other corporations, however, he owned substantial shares of stock and had lycanthropes sitting on boards and others in powerful political positions.
Recently, the various lycanthrope packs had begun to jockey for dominance by making headlines reflecting their vicious nature. Alura told me several times before that things would get worse as the Darkzon lords got closer to Earth. Once here, the Darkzon would destroy all of their dark agents except for the strongest, those who demonstrated dominance above all their own kind. As bad as lycanthropes are, there are more dangerous dark creatures that soon would respond to the influence of the Darkzon – I suppose that creates job security for wizards.
Lupzarro is a relatively young member of his pack. Records show he is only a couple thousand years old and born from royalty, at least among wolf types. This was his time to prove himself among all the packs, or be killed by them. Failing to eliminate Alura and me tonight would be seen as weakness and his furry pals would kill him. If this happened, the packs would start warring among themselves for dominance and leave behind countless human casualties as a new alpha rose to the top of the fur ball heap.
Contrary to myths, lycanthropes are not created from a wolf bite as are their lower level four legged soldiers. Being a lycanthrope meant you were born a lycanthrope. These creatures actually have babies, or pups, that learn shape shifting as early as 12 in human years. Until then, young fur balls are raised by their packs in remote corners of the world while learning how to blend in with mankind.
Lycanthropes don’t consider humans only as a primary food source like vampire clans do – they also killed for sport. To avoid detection, they developed an appetite for store bought meats to help supply their dietary needs. During full moons, however, lycanthropes can’t hold back their animal instincts and will hunt, mostly homeless or isolated people living in remote areas.
“This fight will be different from the one in Iraq,” Alura said. “Lupzarro may have human mercenaries with AK-47s and other military hardware to back up his wolf soldiers. The whole point tonight is to draw us out and kill us in a very public way. Everything else is just collateral damage.”
Alura grimaced. “Azul, people will die tonight brother. All we might be able to do is try to stop a lot of people from dying,” she said, then paused for a moment while nervously tapping her fork. “Sarila is tracking all known lycanthropes and any unusual activity amo
ng their packs. We need to be ready for her call because everything will happen fast once Lupzarro begins his hunt.”
Being an agent of light bore a heavy weight of responsibility, especially for wizards. I understood this and how important wizards are to humanity. Still, the unknown element of what was coming stirred up fear in me. Anger was also present, and I’d be counting heavily on it tonight to keep me motivated.
“Summon Kyiel and get the spells prepared. Each time you use magic, your memory of who you are will strengthen,” Alura said, then headed toward the front door. “I’ll be back before sunset. For now, I need to get a few things and check in with Sarila.”
Sally gave a gentle woof while thumping her tail against the floor, causing Alura to smile.
“Bye Sally, see you soon sweetheart,” she said and shut the door.
Sally must have seen Alura’s departure as an opportunity to go for a walk. She got up and stretched, then walked over to her leash hanging on a wall peg. I clipped the leash to her collar and she led the way outside to take care of her business. As I locked the door behind me, I checked to see if the hell pet crow was watching. Nope, no annoying bird in sight. Things appeared normal, as far as normal goes for a city filled with monsters lurking in shadows.
After walking a couple of blocks, Sally and I headed back to our apartment and passed the Magical Herbs Shoppe. I looked into the shop and saw Melony smiling and waving at me. I smiled and waved back as she finished ringing up a customer purchase. Melony motioned with her hand to come in, so I poked my head into the shoppe.
“Can Sally come in too?”
Melony looked down at Sally and let out a soft laugh, like when people sometimes do when seeing a new baby.
“Oh my gosh, how cute. Sure Sally can come in. You both are always welcome here.”
For a brief moment, I thought I saw an unusually large white aurora surrounding Melony, but decided it was probably a reflection from the sun light coming through the window. Sally’s tail wagged as she towed me behind the counter to greet Melony.
“Oh my, you are such a beautiful girl, aren’t you?” Melony said and hugged Sally. “Yes you are. You’re a sweet girl, and I see you’re taking Daniel out for a walk.”
I smiled and nodded while Melony gave a herbal treat to Sally, who showed her gratitude by making a couple woofs.
“I have something for you Daniel.”
“Another package so soon?”
“Yes, but this one is from me welcoming you to the neighborhood.”
Melony handed me a small package of white colored powder.
“What is this?”
“It’s for you and Sally. Just sprinkle a pinch into your coffee, water, or on your food each day to promote good health and long life. My customers love it and it’s our most popular product.”
“Thank you Melony. We’ll give it a try,” I said. “Magical powder you say,” I said , then gave it a couple of sniffs.
“Good health is always magical Daniel.”
Another customer walked up and placed some items of the counter. I smiled and said goodbye, not wanting to take any more of Melony’s time while she worked.
“How about that Sally. Looks like we both made a new friend.”
Sally looked back through the shop window and woofed to concur with my assessment. A few minutes later we were back at my apartment and I unlocked the door, disarming my wards. I realized then that Sally would also need an amulet to protect her in case she ever crossed the threshold without me one day. I’ll put this task on top of my list should I survive the werewolf fest tonight.
Given the situation, I was relatively relaxed. With about six hours of daylight remaining, I had plenty of time to complete the spells and replenish my wizard bag for the fight.
“Aptier Kyiel,” I said and my molecular buddy appeared.
“Shall we get started,” Kyiel asked.
“What, no hello or how was your day?”
“How was you day Azul?”
He’s learning. I knew Kyiel had no emotions, but Alura was right, he can learn.
“Fine, thank you Kyiel, and yes let us get things ready.”
Kyiel, not having a solid form, walked straight through the wall leading to my lab. I followed him after saying, “Entrunezum,” which made the wall disappear for corporeal beings like myself.
“Okay, where do we begin?”
Kyiel told me I needed four spells: one for invisibility, one for transporting, one for freezing time, and one to charge up my defense magic. Charging up my defenses sounded like a darn good idea. Invisibility and freezing time … well, that’s way beyond cool.
“The powers in your amulets are limitless – your mortal body is not,” Kyiel said. “You will become exhausted if too much magic is used during your current state of recognition. When this happens, only a long rest or casting a defense spell will restore energy to your body for channeling magic. Understand Azul, spells only work for the wizard who creates them, so if you can bring anyone with you during a transportation spell, they must be in physical contact with you – otherwise, they will be left behind.”
Too bad Kyiel has no physical form, because if he did, I could watch him make the spells. The last time I worked with anything like this was in a high school chemistry lab, and after blowing out the windows and creating a small fire, I swore off working with anything that involved such experiments. But that was then and this is now. I guess there’s no substitute for a hands-on approach to things, even magic, and hoped my new lab would not be destroyed.
Kyiel pointed out which items to take that were stored in various jars. First was a single clear crystal about the size of a dime. He instructed me to place the crystal in a small bowl on the table and slowly crush it.
“Wow, I haven’t seen a morter and pestle like this since watching old movies as a kid. It’s an antique you know.”
“I suppose it is, and it works as well as it did thousands of years ago,” Kyiel said.
“I stand corrected. It’s much older – an artifact actually.”
After grinding the crystal down into powder, Kyiel instructed me to add three drops of liquid from another jar and mix it into the powdered crystal. When this was done, he then told me to search my mind for the correct magical words to use.
I closed my eyes and concentrated while images of words and letters streamed past in my mind. Slowly the images faded leaving three words, and when I opened my eyes, I said, “Trans parda viota.” A blue-white light emerged from the center of the mixed powder and began swirling with increasing intensity. A few seconds later, there was a crackle sound and flash of light, then the powder transformed into a coin shaped object.
“So, this is how those magic coins are made,” I said.
There was a symbol on the center of the coin that I didn’t recognize. I asked Kyiel what it meant and he told me it represented the magic spell for invisibility.
“Magic symbols are part of the ancient Zeshtunian language and are drawn out from universal elements of a wizard’s internal magic,” Kyiel said, and then he instructed me to place the magic coin in my wizard bag.
The items needed to complete the next three spell came from different jars containing various small crystals: blue for transporting, green for strengthening defenses, and grey for freezing time.
“About freezing time … isn’t such magic against one of the rules? It seems to me anything affecting a timeline could have dire consequences.”
“One may not alter temporal time Azul. It is, as you say, against the rules. You may not risk undoing what has already been done. Any attempt to alter the past will destroy the wizard who attempts such magic, however, this spell does not change or interfere with time. When cast, the spell speeds up a wizard’s relationship to time by making everything near him appear to be standing still. While the spell only lasts for a few seconds, it is those seconds when life and death decisions might be made.”
“Really? Everything around me stands still?”
“That is correct. Your body, staff in hand, and personal items on your body will be unaffected by the spell within a short range of space. Other objects near you will remain frozen, unmovable, and unchangeable.”
“Sounds like a rather handy spell should I get myself into a pinch. Okay, not a real time spell. It’s a freezing things around me spell – got it. How does the defense spell work?”
“Simply place a green defense coin on the ground and crush it while saying the word ‘relesa’. When the coin breaks, it immediately channels magic through your amulets to provide maximum defense and energy. Keep in mind that spells are temporary and that magic stored in coin form last only for a few months of the shelf.”
Apparently, my amulets were like super batteries. The more I used magic, the quicker the power drained. I recalled feeling very tired after battling Lupzarro’s wolfs in Iraq, and that involved only night vision and one transportation spell to Keob.
“So, the defense spell is used when I feel like falling asleep?”
“You will know when the time comes as such decisions are instinctive to wizards,” Kyiel replied, then he noted there was an exception. “Transportation spells works much like a GPS. To cast the spell, you must first make a pentagram and place the coin in the middle before crushing it. The pentagram can be made from anything, such as sticks, rocks, drawing, or anything else able to form a circle. Once completed, it acts like a compass.”
That explains the chalk I have in my wizard bag, which seemed odd until now.
“Yea, I know about this spell. Back in Iraq, I drew a pentagram in the dirt with the end of my staff and it worked fine. Alura and I were able to transport back to Keob before Lupzarro’s wolf soldiers had a chance to tear our throats out. Okay, what’s next?”
Kyiel instructed me to repeat creating the spells two more times so I’d have a total of three coins for each spell. I did as instructed and he asked if I had any questions.
“Actually, I do have one question. Why is it that everything involving magic results has a blue and white light? Why not yellow, purple, or green with red stripes?”
“Do you recall what we were wearing in your visions of Zeshtune?”
“Sure, we wore white robes and with blue sashes. See, that’s my point. Why is everything blue and white?”
“These are the Zeshtune colors for peace and friendship. What other color combinations do you think would be chosen by a race that discovered magic?”
“Zeshtunians discovered magic … for real?”
“Our race was the first to harness white magic for promoting peace and friendship. Is there anything else I can do for you Azul?”
“Nope, that covers everything for now.”
“Very well,” Kyiel said, then he bowed and disappeared.
With twelve magical coins tucked away in my wizard bag, I headed out into the living room to wait for Alura. Sally was still lying at her favorite spot and found enough strength to wag her tail twice, but didn’t move her head. I said good morning and let her continue resting.
Only a few hours of daylight remained and Alura said she’d be back before sunset. There was nothing to do now but wait, so I took a can of beer from the refrigerator and wondered how the night might unfold. I began to draw a mental image in my head of what Moon would look like with my staff pushed up his nose – that thought put a big smile on my face.
Hmm … I wonder if the fur ball is sharpening his teeth and grooming his tail.