Victor of Tucson

“Like your mentor, Dar?”

“Right. So, anyway, they’re very powerful, and one thing I’ve learned about people with that kind of power is that they can snoop on us little people pretty easily. They’re supposed to be neutral, but even Tes agrees with me that they’re probably not. The ‘great houses’ on Ruhn have been in power for a long, long time, and I think it would be foolish to think none of the veil walkers are related to them one way or another.”

“So you don’t want them to see you working your new magic?”

“Basically, yeah.” He looked at her sideways. “Hey, speaking of magic, how are things going for you? How’s your Core coming along?”

“Do you fear I’ve let your gift go to waste? Fear not! Old Mother taught me a thing or two about cultivating my courage-attuned Energy before she passed, and I’ve been diligent. The band of moonlight-hued Energy that circles my death-attuned Energy has grown thick and vibrant, compressing that cold blue center into a smaller, denser heart. It’s there but never leaks out unless I call upon it. Meanwhile, the courage you gifted me is a boon to all the Shadeni I care for.”

Victor smiled, his heart warmed by the success. He put his arm over her shoulders and squeezed her tight to his side. “I’m happy about that, Thayla. Do you Spirit Walk often?”

“Oh yes. I have duties as the mother of this clan that require it.” She tugged him to the side, and they left the main track on a narrow game trail, weaving between tall, mature trees up into the hills. They walked quietly for a while, and then Thayla stopped, turning to look back the way they’d come, sighing happily at the vista.

The sun was turning the eastern horizon yellow and orange, and the thin, wispy clouds were painted with the same shades. “I haven’t watched a sunrise from this spot yet. Thank you for getting me out so early, Victor.”

Thayla sat, but her face had gotten serious, her smile fading. “It is beautiful, but we paid dearly.”

Victor nodded. “Yeah, and not just to the undead—to the Ridonne on the way here. Your people paid more than most.”

Thayla shook her head. “Not as much as the Naghelli or the people from Nia’s world.”

“Dark Ember,” Victor growled, the words coming from his lips like a curse. “I want to go there. I want to help the people there, but Tes thinks the ‘great vampire lords’ are probably veil-walkers—steel seekers, at least.”

Thayla nodded, watching him sit beside her. “And you’ve many other commitments. Is it up to you to save everyone?”

“No, not everyone,” Victor sighed, summoning a small camp stove and setting it up before his chair. “I feel like I ought to help those I know about, though. Of course, I promised I’d help the giants of Zaafor deal with Warlord Thoargh, too. I’m actually looking forward to seeing his pinché smug face again.”

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Thayla laughed. “Glad you’re still the same old Victor in there underneath all those layers of power.”

“Layers of power? Do I seem different?”

“I can feel your Spirit Core. It’s like being a little too close to a campfire.”

“Oh, shit.” Victor looked inward and ensured he was holding his aura well in check; he was. “Is it uncomfortable?”

“No!” Thayla laughed and smiled at him, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “It’s not like that; it’s more, well, it’s more that I can tell you’re holding back—like a compressed spring. It’s different with Tes. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was just a normal tier-two or tier-three cultivator. Why is that?”

Victor shrugged. “I think it has to do with her being past the iron ranks. Like, she’s as strong as a veil walker, but she doesn’t use that terminology. I think once you reach that kind of power, it’s easier to hide it somehow. Dar seems perfectly harmless half the time, too—other than his size and pissed-off expressions.” Victor laughed. He leaned forward and summoned a little kettle, setting it on the stove to heat up.

“What are you making?”

“Some coffee. I bought it in Sojourn.” While he spoke, he summoned a little table and set it beside the stove. Then he brought out his coffee pot, strainer, two cups, a bowl of sugar, and a carafe of cream. He loaded some fresh coffee grounds into the metallic strainer and placed it atop the pot. “I think there are better ways to make it, but I never really learned before leaving home. My abuela always made it in an old electric coffee pot.”

“I’m eager to try it!”

“Well, while that’s heating up, wanna help me try out one of my new spells?”

“Of course I do.”

Victor stood and held out a hand, pulling Thayla to her feet. Then, he pointed to a spot a bit further away, near a large fallen tree. “Stand over there by that tree and pretend a bunch of monsters are surrounding you, getting ready to kill you.”

Thayla laughed, shaking her head as she walked over to the tree. “How am I to pretend that?”

“I don’t know. Hold up your hands and cower.”

“Hah! I wouldn’t! I’d die with spear in hand!”

“Okay, fine—do that!” Victor watched as she summoned her spear and began jabbing it at imaginary enemies, then he pulled out his elder magic book, flipping to the spell he had in mind. “Perfect! Keep that up for a few minutes while I review this pattern.”

“What? A few minutes?”

Victor chuckled, nodding as he examined the pattern. It was one of the easier of his new spells, only filling a couple of pages. He started building the pattern in his pathway, using, per usual, his inspiration-attuned Energy. Two minutes later, he turned the page and continued, delicately weaving multiple threads of Energy in and out of the intricate pattern. In the end, it had two complex sections—one that was very familiar to him and part of a System-granted spell meant for shielding and another that was totally new to him, something Tes had guided his hand on.

When the pattern flashed and solidified in his pathway, the System brought forth its now-familiar complaints:

***Warning! The spell being cast incorporates and alters another System-granted spell. If you complete this casting, your System-granted spell will be removed.***

***Warning! The spell being cast does not follow System-designed iterations and may be too powerful for you. Proceed at your own risk.***

***Warning! Non-System spell pattern detected! You will only receive this warning one time. Do you wish to halt this process? YES/NO.***

He glanced at Thayla and saw her seemingly frozen in place, fighting her imaginary enemies. “Okay, let’s see how this works.” Victor mentally indicated he wanted to proceed with the spell, and then Energy poured out of his Core, empowering the magic. With a flash like a bomb going off, a brilliant, white-gold ball of Energy enveloped Thayla. At the same time, with a dizzying surge of power, Victor’s stomach fell away as he was ripped through the fabric of reality and, in the space of a single heartbeat, brought back exactly where Thayla had been standing. Meanwhile, she had gone to his previous location, her golden shield still intact.

“What—ack!” Sounds of retching emerged from the shield of inspiration-attuned Energy surrounding Thayla, and Victor understood why; he was dizzy, and his stomach was churning from the sudden relocation. He leaned forward, hands on knees, as the sensation faded. Blinking away watery eyes, he read the System messages:

***You have discovered a new spell: Guardian’s Rescue – Epic.***

***Your new spell renders a System-granted spell obsolete. Removing.***

***You have lost the spell: Guard Ally – Basic.***

***Guardian’s Rescue – Epic: You have mastered the art of tactical intervention. When cast, Guardian’s Rescue encases your chosen ally in a cocoon of Energy. This protective cocoon absorbs incoming damage and rebuffs attackers with damage based on the attunement used to cast it. Simultaneously, the spell triggers a teleportation effect, instantly swapping your position with that of your ally, provided they are within your line of sight. Whether to pull an ally from danger or place yourself at the heart of the fray, Guardian’s Rescue grants unparalleled control over battlefield positioning, offering a lifeline in critical moments. Energy Cost: 10,000.***

***Warning! This spell is not System-designed! Use it with caution—there are no safeguards in place. This is the only time you will receive this warning!***

“Not bad!” Victor laughed, straightening up. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Thayla called from within the blazing shell of Energy, though she sounded a bit put out. “How long will this persist?”

“I don’t know. Hang on.” Victor summoned the fancy broadsword he’d gotten inside the Iron Prison. It was a heavy, wonderfully crafted weapon with a faintly luminescent silver-flecked dark-metal blade that was, if Victor remembered correctly, crafted from sableglow steel. It felt comfortable in his hand, and the balance made him want to swing it, almost like it had its own inertia. He stepped closer to Thayla, and then, careful that his blow would hit the shell of magical Energy but not her, he swung the sword at it.

His blade impacted the barrier and penetrated it, though barely. Meanwhile, a wave of doubt and discouragement washed over Victor, and he gasped, “Shit! Are you okay?”

“Fine.” Thayla narrowed her eyes at him through the haze of Energy. “Why? That sword didn’t even come close to me.”

Victor stepped back, his hand shaking, his mind clouded by confusion. After a minute, he started to laugh. “Holy shit! That’s what my own Energy did to me! It basically did the opposite of inspiration.” He stepped close again. “Hold still.” With a grunt, he lifted the sword and brought it down even harder on the shell. This time, the barrier shattered, but Victor fell back, his mind racing for answers to questions he couldn’t grasp. He stumbled and fell onto his butt, pawing at the ground with his hands as he crab-walked away from Thayla.

She looked at him like he was mad, laughing as she asked, “What are you doing?”

It took a good twenty or thirty seconds before Victor could form a coherent thought and piece together what was happening. “I just blasted myself with confusion or doubt or something. Holy shit, that’s cool.”

“You teleported me and shielded me! If I hadn’t gotten sick, I’d congratulate you.” She stepped close and held out a hand. Victor smiled and took her hand in his, laughing as she grunted and failed to pull him to his feet. “Help me a little, you oaf!”

“All right, all right.” When she tugged again, Victor surged to his feet and smiled. “Sorry about the upset stomach; I didn’t know it would do that.”

“That spell is amazing, Victor. Do you think I could learn it?”

Victor frowned, turning to walk over to the kettle. It was bubbling, so he slowly drizzled its contents onto the coffee grounds, watching as the darkened water dripped into the pot. “I think you could, eventually, but, for starters, it takes ten thousand Energy to cast. Also, the System doesn’t like it.”

“What does that mean?” Thayla moved to sit in her camp chair.

“It’s not a System-granted spell. It’s built using a kind of magic that I’m nervous even mentioning to you because I don’t want you to gain some new enemies—the kind of enemies that can appear out of nowhere and kill you with a snap of their fingers.” He illustrated by holding his hand in front of her eyes and snapping.

She slapped his hand away. “They’d kill me?”

“Well, they might not kill you for learning, but they’d certainly put me on a to-be-killed list for teaching you. I don’t think we’re ready to face that risk yet. Let me get more powerful, and you need to gain some strength, too.” He paused his pouring and looked at her. “Do you think you want to do that? I mean, keep gaining levels? Now that you know what’s out there?”

“I think so, but I’m in no hurry, Victor. I’ll content myself with this quiet life for a decade or two—I’d like to see the children grow up and start their lives. Then, maybe I’ll visit one of the worlds you’ve discovered. Maybe you can give me a suggestion.”

Victor grinned. “Hell yes, I can.”

After a while, when Victor finished the coffee and poured them each a cup, she held it close, savoring the aroma as she looked out over the hillside. “Are they more beautiful?”

Victor poured some cream into his cup and narrowed his eyes. “Who?”

“Not people. I mean those other worlds you’ve seen. Are they more beautiful?”

“Than this?” Victor looked out over the countryside, taking in the blue-green treetops and the great fields of shimmering grass reflecting the morning’s bright rays. “Not a chance, Thayla. Some of the worlds I’ve been to were godawful—wastelands filled with poisonous air or deserts with hardly a thing growing in them. Sojourn is pretty in a way; you can see the stars all day and night like you’re practically in space, and the city is wondrous. Ruhn is pretty, too, but no more than Fanwath, though Iron Mountain is something awesome. You’ve got to see it to know what I mean.”

Thayla smiled at that and took a tiny sip of her coffee. “Oh,” she said, holding it out to peer at the dark liquid. “It smells better than it tastes.”

Victor laughed and took her cup. “You might like it more with some sugar and cream. It takes a little getting used to.”

She smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder. “Like many good things.” He knew what she meant: she hadn’t exactly been fond of him when they’d first met.

He nodded, grinning as he scooped a tablespoon of sugar into her cup. “Yeah, Thayla. Like many good things.”