A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1) (34 page)

“Okay,
inconclusive but it doesn’t matter since she is staying with me at the moment,”
I paused a moment.  “By the way, where is she?”

“I
didn’t have time to organize the shifters and deal with Jin’s crime spree.  I
deputized her and she is now kicking shifter butt into an organized group
capable of monitoring the nodes you tagged.”

“Oh,
she must have hated that,” Stella muttered.  It occurred to me that Stella and
Mei were spending a lot of time together to be this familiar with her.

“She
had a fit,” the stoic officer nodded, obviously hearing the comment.  “Never
the less, she has been after Jin longer than most of us combined have been
alive and she can taste the endgame is here.”

I
looked again at the bloody debris.  You bet the end game was near.

We
were a subdued pair as we made our way back home.  There was a floating
construction barge and crew already on the street in front of my house resurfacing
the permacrete.  Two more people in the crew’s overalls were kneeling on the
churned grass discussing plans to fix the damage.  The destroyed cab that I had
kicked off my lawn was gone, perhaps in the barge somewhere.  I generally
hadn’t been up and about when this company stopped by for repairs, but I have
been fairly pleased with Jeremy’s choice of contractors.

I
watched the construction for a few minutes until I saw one person hop out with
a large old fashioned bell.  It looked like a bucket sized replica of the
Liberty Bell.  In fact, as I looked closer I saw it actually was the Liberty
Bell including the crack and inscription.  I chuckled to myself.  Beth had
interpreted my instructions in a rather humorous fashion.  I approved.

I
had to correct the placement of the bell though.  The workman was going to
place it inside the ward effects.  While watching vampires burn never got old,
it would defeat the purpose of having the bell for guests that may have a poor
reaction to the wards.  Afterward, I went inside still shaking my head.  Truly
this was the age of instant gratification, though I likely didn’t want to know
how much it cost me.

Beth
was at the terminal doing further research on my requests, using a projection
on each all and flipping through the search pages as soon as they appeared.  I
hadn’t even known it could do that.  Stella sat on the couch staring with an
unfocused intensity into nowhere.  It was clear her mind was not on us, and I
wasn’t much in the mood for conversion either.  While the females were occupied
I went down stairs.

I
had a difficult time concentrating on my research.   A lot had happened today
and although I considered myself mentally flexible I admit that I am sensitive
when it comes to losing my companions.  It had hurt the first time and I wasn’t
looking forward to experiencing more pain.  I had known I would outlive my
mortal friends, however this world’s technology was supposed to mean that they
had a chance to potentially live as long.  Or at least put off parting until
some vague point in the future.  The future was approaching faster than I had
planned.  I was tempted to open the floor and relax amid my treasures, but I
couldn’t do that with guests in the house.

I
almost gave up on making any progress when I noticed Beth next to me.  “What
are you doing?” she asked, breaking me out of my contemplation.

I
was about to respond when I realized I had actually had my paints and chemical
vials unopened in front of me and I had been looking at the ceramic disk I was
using as practice for almost fifteen minutes.  “Apparently I am not doing
anything.  What do you need?”

“I
was thinking about the placard you gave me,” she said, while pulling out some
parts, springs and a glue stick.  “You said I need to combine my blood and this
other liquid, which I assume is your blood,” I raised an eyebrow.  That was
good reasoning. “If I glue this old model blood sampling needle to the disk and
encase your blood in this gel pack next to this second needle I should be able
to activate the... er, ward in one action.”

I
looked over the parts and slowly nodded.  “Excellent idea.  Much faster than my
idea.”

“Yeah,
drawing blood with a dagger was scary.  I mean inefficient,” she hastily
corrected herself.

“Yeah,
your idea is definitely better,” I agreed.  “However, you have to make sure the
glue doesn’t touch these lines here.  Could have unintended side effects.” 
Pausing in contemplation, I continued, “Now that I think about the dagger I
gave you may have gathered enough of a charge to accidentally cut off a finger.”

“What,”
she exclaimed, eyes wide in fear.

“Don’t
worry,” I soothed her, patting her shoulder.  “I could have put the finger back
on after the fight.  Assuming a demon didn’t eat it,” I winced as she twitched
and paled.  “But I would have been able to regenerate it back!”  My attempts to
reassure her didn’t seem to be working.

“You
can do that with magic,” she asked cautiously.

“Well,
it wouldn’t really be magic,” I clarified.  “I also have some psionic tricks.”

“Like
telepathy and telekinesis?”

“Exactly.”
 I nodded smiling.  “Jeremy used to crawl in here all shot and bleeding all
over like a stuck pig.”

“What?”

“Yep,
he could be a slob sometimes.  Made a lot of messes.  On my carpet, my floor,
my clothes...”

“Is
working for you that dangerous,” she whispered hesitantly.

“Me?”
I asked in surprise.  “All that was from his detective work.  He always took
crazy chances.  I offered to teach him a few things.  Force fields, telekinesis.
 The fun stuff, but he never accepted.  He insisted on doing things his own
way.”  I admired him for it, but it was hugely frustrating.

“Could
you,” she stuttered to a halt for second.  “Could you teach me?”

I
looked at her in surprise. Then leaned closer to look her in the eyes.  “I
could.  Jeremy had potential, but he was a bit old and set in his ways.  Even
though you’re almost an adult, I think we can unleash your potential.”

“Will
a take a very long time to learn it?”

“Well,
I can show your brain the right way to do things but it actually starts very
weak.  If you practice every day until your head starts to ache you should have
something usable in a few weeks.”

“Oh,”
she said, seeming rather lost.  “That seems rather more and less than I
thought.  So it’s not like an apprenticeship?  Just show me and I practice.”

“Yep.
Though once you master what I show you and build up your strength, I can lead
you to the next set of exercises and skills.  Pure self-study is possible but
can take a very long time.”

“Oh,
I thought it would take more training,” she whispered.  “Yes, I’d like to learn,
please.”

“The
practice is real training, though once you get it down you can practice to grow
your strength while doing other things.  Like float a book to read, interface
with the holo terminal with your mind.  Fun stuff,” I placed the palms of my
hands on either side of her head.  “Hold still, it gets messy if your head
explodes.”

With
that last bit of humor, I looked deeply into her eyes and dived into her mind. 
It’s not really possible to describe the experience completely, but by feel I
was able to match my aura and mental energy patterns to hers.  Once I had, I
slowly changed my energies back to my normal and forced her energies to match. 
It actually was very similar to the merging I had done to infiltrate Kingston’s
group.  Less intimate though, no actual thoughts were exchanged.  “Okay, that
is part one.  Next I am going to move these plates with my mind.  Note how it
feels.  You’re doing it next.”

She
didn’t get the plates to move, but she did get the spring to twitch.  I think
that was good beginning if you’re not a fount of psionic energy.  I also gave
her mental drills to develop a body field and a calming exercise to shield her
thoughts.  The damn city still had a terrible effect on psychics, she’d need to
develop that first unless she wanted nightmares.

By
the time we had completed all the basic training I could see she was getting a
headache.  “Don’t practice after the headache starts.  Unless your brain heals
itself it can cause an aneurism.”  I was almost completely sure human brains
didn’t heal unless they were full of nanites.

“I’m
tired,” she said with a huge yawn.  “I’m going to take a nap on the couch.”  I
looked after her slight form as it staggered up the stairs.  I should have
pressured Jeremy to take the training more.  I shook myself out of my funk.  He
wasn’t dead yet.

Of
course, he may be mutilated or injured.  I could heal that, heck any hospital
could, however I couldn’t heal the brain and for similar reasons it was illegal
to regenerate someone’s brain unless it was very minor damage.  Science and psionics
couldn’t create something out of nothing.  A person was likely to have their
brains regenerated and then lay there like a turnip, a blank slate, lacking
personality or intelligence.  Of course they had ways to record memories but
there was such a history of abuse that the law would rather declare a person
dead than deal with the fallout of clones, multiple bodies, multiple minds and
innumerable nefarious schemes.

Magic
was different.  As I had told Beth, everything was recorded in the firmament. 
Perhaps even a person’s spirit or soul.  In either case, powerful enough
magical healing could restore brain damage, memories and even resurrect the
dead.  Maybe it was time to look into it.  I had found a circle in the books that
was supposed to resurrect the dead, however it was as far beyond my meager
abilities as the dimensional travel circle was.  There was a basic version of
it though.  A circle that flooded a body with regenerative energy.  I was
unsure whether it would do more than I could do with my psionics.  Would it
access the lost patterns impressed in the foundation of reality or simply
regenerate the flesh?

I
shrugged.  I needed the practice and if I got good enough to pull off the basic
healing circle it would be a step further to do the intermediate circle which I
was confident would reach a pattern in the firmament.  The resurrection circle
would be a ways off though. Turning to an unoccupied corner, I scraped the
duracrete floor clean and moved the ceramic plates together to form an area
large enough for a comfortable circle.  With nary a twinge of pain from my
chest, I extended my forefinger’s nail into a sharpened talon, perfect for
engraving.  This time I was able to lose myself in the process rather than in my
brooding.

There
was some knocking from above, but I stayed true to my focus as I etched the
outer circle and started the primary and secondary divisions.  I hadn’t gotten
very far on the interior before Stella came downstairs.

“There
is a man upstairs from Blue Skies.  He wants to talk to you about some damaged
property.”

“Ah,”
I nodded absently, “That the company whose taxi crashed while we were in it.”

“The
roller coaster death traps,” she said, her voice rising as she became more
upset.

“Yeah,
those,” I agreed as I etched another line, tiny sparks rising from my talon.  “Have
Beth talk to him and threaten to sue them for endangerment.”  I winced a little
as a high pitched screech came from the ceramic as I moved a little too fast on
a curve.”

“Beth
is exhausted, she is asleep on the couch,” I felt her aura expand around her,
as emotions magnified energies.  “I couldn’t wake her even if I wanted to.  I
will discuss this with him outside.  He should be aware how unhappy I am with
their company’s services.”

I
paused in my work.  Her aura was interfering with the balance of energies I was
trying to achieve while inscribing.  As long as I waited until she left to
continue the circle shouldn’t be impacted, however if I continued without the
skill to counter balance her interference I could accidentally end up with some
horribly disfiguring effect.  That would be awkward.

Stella
retreated upstairs her footsteps fading but resolute.  Soon after, I heard her
raised voice and a rather nervous stuttering male voice.  The front door closed
and the sounds faded leaving me alone with the circle once more.  Several more
hours passed and footsteps came down again.  This time it was Mei.  She looked
as tired physically as I felt mentally.

“I
heard about Jeremy,” she said quietly from the bottom step.  “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t
be sorry yet,” I said, turning from my mostly complete circle.  It just needed
final activation.  I would have to do that tomorrow, since forming it had
drained most of my energy.  One of the nice things about circle is that you
could empower them in parts, rather than gather all the energy at once.  “He’s
still alive and if we move fast enough, I am hoping he’ll stay that way.”

“True,
but if we are waiting for them to make the next move, then we won’t be in control
of the timing.”

“Well,
our surveillance is good but I have a few other things I can try,” I slapped my
hands together to get the ceramic dust off of them as my talon receded.  “I was
happy with our plans but since Jin is stepping up his activities and is
becoming less concerned with hiding his presence I have a couple of long shots
I am trying.”