The Laws Of Elios (Book 2) (23 page)

Leo laughed trying to inspire a little bit of joviality back into the conversation.  “I was a professor
of magetech at Wonstrowd and what I’ve learned here in Yllyan would blow your mind.  I hope that everyone will be able to learn what I’ve learned.  Thanks to the access that my instructor has to the Arc of Wisdom I have recently been reading a lot of the prior history of Eliom.  As well off as we think we have things, we are living like primeval field mice compared to the Luion Glyph Mages and Elios civilization that predated us.”

The topic changed again as one of the magetechs at the table asked, “Professor, Just exactly what is it you do over in that mysterious research building of yours?”

Leo laughed, “Research, what else.  Pass your glyph mages test and I’ll hire you on and then you’ll know… but be careful what you wish for; we work long hours.”  The group laughed because they know it was true and an understatement.

Much later and feeling good about a day
, that although had begun early and badly, it had ended very well.  Insisting that she was doing much better and that it was late, Leo needn’t see her all the way home.  Kaysee stepped to the curb as the trolley approached.  As it came to a stop she impulsively turned and gave Leo a kiss then hurried aboard the car.

Her small home seemed large and empty after the boisterous evening with Leo and friends.  Not tired due to her morning nap she decided to make some tea and study some of the glyphs that Leo had been teaching her.  Sitting at her kitchen table Kaysee froze as she poured her tea.  Had she just heard a voice?  Continuing she finished pouring and then she heard it again.

“That’s pretty impressive magic you are studying,” Spoke a voice that seemed to be inside her head.  “Too bad you are a non-potent and will never be able to use it,” the voice mocked.

Kaysee stood spilling her tea and looked wildly around the room.  “Who said that?” she called out.

“Oh good, you can hear me,” the voice responded.  “I was worried that the ring your boyfriend gave you was blocking that too.”

“Where are you,” Kaysee shouted almost in a panic.

“I am right here,” the voice said silkily, “right inside your mind.”

“Well get out, I don’t want you there.  Oh,” moaned Kaysee putting her hands uselessly over her ears.  “I’m going crazy.  This is worse than the nightmares.  I need to go see Laura.”

The self-assured voice changed and became serious almost worried.  “No need to go see the lumen mage, I want to be out of here just as much as you want me out.”

“How did you get there,” demanded Kaysee, closing her eyes trying to think what to do?

“You put me here,” spoke the voice in a matter-of-fact reply.

“Oh no I didn’t,” Kaysee said as she sat hard in her chair, hands on her ears and almost slammed her head on the table as she started rocking back and forth. “I’m going crazy she started to sob, I need to see Laura.”

“Calm down, you’re not going insane or anything close.”  Kaysee paused her rocking
still confused and feeling like she was nearing a nervous breakdown.  “Think about it,” continued the voice.  “How much magic have you seen lately?  I venture to say quite a bit.  You are a magetech after all.  So why should you be surprised that someone has accidently gotten stuck in your mind?”

“Then get out!” She said louder than she intended.  “I don’t know how you got there but I don’t want you in my head on
e second more.”

“Like I said, you put me here,” the voice said again as if that explained everything.

“How,” Kaysee replied?

“You recall several months ago when you were at the transport station, you call it the overland, and you found that shiny red glass ball?
” asked the voice.  “That ball held a copy of - for lack of a better term - my personality.  When you picked it up, you somehow absorbed me.”

“I recall,” she said remembering
the day.  The same day that she had first met Ava getting off the train with Laura.  The same day that Ava had been attacked and been lumen poisoned.

“I’ve been trying to get your attention ever since then,” the voice lied.  “I
’ve tried sending you dreams, I’ve tried every magic I knew,” the voice grew contrite,” I’m ashamed to say that I even tried taking control of your body.  It wasn’t until your friend gave you that ring today that I recognized what I needed to do in order to focus my voice.”

“Why did you wait until now,” asked Kaysee suspiciously?

“Two reasons, first it took me a while to work it out.  Second I felt that if I started speaking to you out of the blue in front of your friends, then not only you, but they themselves would have thought you were going crazy.

Feeling a little more calm and that the tale seemed a little
bit plausible Kaysee said, “You seem to know a lot about me, tell me about you, who you are, how did you come to be at the Valee station, in the form of a little red ball?”

“My name is Brenner.  I am an explorer.  Believe it or not I travelled the stars to be here.  As I was traveling the vessel that I was traveling in was running low on Lumen; it uses lumen as fuel.  As a precaution
in case my starblade should fail between the stars, I made a copy of my thoughts and placed them within the seed; the red globe, that you found. And I cast it to this world in case of emergency.”  With a mental sniff, the voice concluded, “Alas my vessel never made it back home and the original me is lost and dead somewhere in the night time between the stars.”

“That’s terrible,” consoled Kaysee as she imagined a man dying alone far from home.  “
But why me, you can’t just be jumping into the first mind that happens to be walking by?”

“I’m truly sorry about that,” Brenner replied once again in a voice
dripping in contrition.  “That was an unfortunate accident.  What is supposed to happen is it should migrate to the nearest Mage and they are supposed to be able to restore me - which leads to where we are now.  I can see from the notes that you were studying that you are learning to be a mage.  It so happens that I know a little something about magic myself.”

Kaysee retrieved a dish towel from a rack near the sink and began to wipe up the spilled tea.  “I don’t need any help from you, I know plenty of mages. 
The only thing that you can do for me is get out of my head.  Maybe I can get one of them to help restore you,” she suggested.

“I don’t know,” Brenner pondered, “Do they do this type of magic very often?  I mean for you they would be careful, but they might not be so careful with me.  The spell
is
fairly simple but it requires a lot of care.  I’m not sure they could do it without hurting at least one of us; probably both. Why don’t we work on this together?  In two maybe three days tops I could be out of here and buying you and your boyfriend dinner.  Although,” the voice in her head paused dramatically, “there is the issue of you being a non-potent.”

“What do you mean non-potent
?” Kaysee had spent a lot of time with Leo learning glyphs so that she could be a candidate to make her own instructor.  She knew the levels of lumen magic and she knew what a non-potent was; surely he would not have had her go through all of that study if she wasn’t able to use lumen.  “My boyfriend,” She paused, she hoped he was her boyfriend, “Leo would have told me if I wasn’t able to use lumen.”

“I’m so, so, sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything,” the voice of Brenner said with sadness in his tone.  “He must not have had the heart to tell you.”

“I don’t believe you Leo would never hold the truth from me.  What makes you so sure that I can’t use lumen?  How do I even know that you know what you are talking about and not just saying things to take control of my mind?” Kaysee didn’t know what to believe, it was true that Leo hadn’t said anything, but what if there was no way to tell.  On the other hand Leo was such a kind dear man.  If anyone wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings it would be him, but he wouldn’t hold something that important to her from her; now she wasn’t sure.  What makes you so sure that I’m a non-potent?”

“For one I’m a mage,” replied Brenner.  “For another I am in your head and have been for some time and know what you are capable of.”

“Well if I am not capable of using lumen, “she said feeling tears start to brim – this news was coming hard she realized.  “How can I do anything to restore you?”

“I never said you can’t use lumen,” Brenner almost purred.  “I said you were a non-potent – a term used by the practitioners of the magic of the Elios.  There are more magics in the universe than that practiced by the Elios.  Judging by the fact that my orb found you and not a lumen mage I would guess that you are more of a natural mage.  A natural mage is one that uses nature to power their magic; they get their lumen from nature.
”

Her interest aroused
, Kaysee asked the question that the remnant of Brenner had been waiting for.  “Can you show me?”

The voice of Brenner seemed to smile, “Absolutely.
”

The Desmond kitchen was a whirlwind of conversation.  Shane and Ava along with Shane’s parents had arrived late from Ricanus’ just in time to find
Ari, Leslie and Louisa all concentrating on a multiple screened instructor set up on the kitchen table and they were discussing glyphs like experts with Gerard sitting quietly to the side listening intently. 

Gerard was the first to arise from his perch beside
his brother the two sisters and greet the four arrivals; the studious women hadn’t even noticed their arrival.  “Bonsoir,” Gerard greeted hugging each of them in his normal genial manner.  “What a pleasant surprise. Please pull up a chair, can I offer you some refreshment?”

“None for me,” decline Shane.  “We just came from a late dinner.”

“Non merci,” echoed Both Ava and Laura as they moved toward a pair of empty chairs on the other side of the table followed by Soaris who nodded negatively as he followed his wife to a third empty chair.

Just as they were about to seat themselves Leslie and Louisa noticed the new arrivals and another round of greetings ensued. 

“Why are you studying your instructor,” asked Ava?  “You are going to find that after you have your dream instruction tonight you will find that you wasted a lot of time.”

Leslie and Louisa burst out laughing.  Ava folded her arms indignantly, “What do you find so entertaining.  I’m only speaking from experience and am trying to help.”  This only caused the two sisters to increase their mirth.

Finally Leslie stopped laughing and explained.  “I was so excited about my morning that instead of going shopping I took Louisa to the Records Center to show her around and it said that I had all rights as Recorder to allow who ever I wanted and I asked it to do a genealogy check on Louisa - no surprise, because we are sisters - it said that she is just as thick with lumen ability as I am.  So I asked the library to give her a dream instruction on what she needed to know to be a student like me. Then we both went home and promptly took very long naps.  When we woke up we both knew what we needed to know.  That reminds me, Shane dear, Louisa needs an instructor with the heal glyph guerit and the oprepa glyph – it has something to do with empathy and understanding.  Ari said he would make one if you said it was fine by you.”

Shane sighed,
what a
day, he thought to himself.  “Ari, would you mind?”  At Ari’s nod he added, “Thank you.”  In spired, Shane looked at his future father-in-law with his lumen site and saw what he expected.  With a wave that seemed casual, a globe of light appeared in the air in front of Gerard.  “Gerard I’m afraid that I’ve brought the heritage of your family down upon you unasked and I can see by looking at you that Ava’s lumen ability doesn’t come from only one side of the family.  You and your brother are the same.  Would you like to have that heritage restored to you as well?  Shane could see a minute look of excited relief as if Gerard had been holding back a feeling of exclusion.  However the well-mannered Luion would not allow anything but expressed happiness be shown to those around the room that had begun learning glyph magic. 

Gerard looked Shane gratefully in the eye; an expression of unspoken gratitude silently exchanged.  “I would mean much me to learn the things that have brought such joy to my wife and daughter.”

Shane smiled with a wink to Ari.  “Place you hand in the light and tell me what you feel.”

“It tingles,” Gerard answered after a moment.

“You can remove your hand,” Shane responded.  “Get a good night sleep and we’ll talk in the morning about your personal glyphs.” 

“That is all,” queried Gerard?

“Um… sweet dreams,” shrugged Shane innocently before adding, “Based on the glyphs that Louisa was given yours will undoubtedly be very interesting.

Gerard was about to retake his chair but the still standing Shane grasped his shoulder, “A moment if you would Monsieur.  Ava and I have an announcement.”  The conversation at the table ceased and everyone looked from Ava to Shane.  Ava remain
ed silent so with a clearing of his throat Shane continued.  “I have asked Ava to marry me and she has accepted.”

The room erupted in congratulations and hugs. 

“Before you all get too excited,” Shane interrupted the celebration, “Due to all that is going on we have decided on a very small wedding in a magical location that only certain of us will be able to attend and we plan on being married on Dima, a week and three days from now.

Gerard rose up
with a loud dismissal, “You both have put this off far too long and if it is to be a small wedding and in ten days so be it.”  Soon glasses of a sparkling vintage were distributed among the group. 

After the story and details of the proposal had been told and elaborated on by the women Gerard, Ari, Soaris, and Shane left the girls to their wedding
planning preparations and they quietly left the kitchen.  Settling into large comfortable chairs that furnished a meeting area that was part of Gerard’s spacious office. Ari was the first to speak.  Looking at Shane he smiled wryly.  “Ok now for the bad news,” he spoke it like a question; looking from Shane to Soaris.

Shane took a breath and began the tale of what had been going on for the last day.  He described the details of the activities in Jehhet, the magic they were up against, and finally the full plan of the Elios as he understood it.

Ari looked at Soaris, “anything else?”

Soaris shook his head, “I’m afraid that’s it in a nutshell.  I’ve been here holding things together for a long time.  I’ve always hoped for
the day of the Plans fruition but I never imagined that the Allyant would cause such a disturbance in the Plan and that it would come down to a final conflict with an Allyant presence like we are facing.  The Four things that need to occur as soon as possible are:  First: Shane needs to physically swear to the Oaths of Light at the Arc.  Second He needs to perform the joining of the Star Seeds.  Third: He needs to seal the Arc to Eliom; the Lumen contained within it is a gift from the Elios to the Star Seeds that will give them extra protection should the Allyant great ones ever attempt to conquer or destroy this system.  Finally: Shane needs to reestablish the Laws of Lumen upon the world and create the three degrees of transition required to complete Eliom’s transformation into a true transition world.”

Shane laughed, “A piece of cake.  This
givs us plenty of time for Ava and I to get married, stop a war, and destroy the most vile Lumen poisoning you could ever imagine.”  They all laughed at the enormity of it all for a few moments then Shane cleared his throat.  “Ari, I hate to burden you with this but I need you to see what you can come up with regarding an attack strategy based on what we know about the Allyant possessed king of Jehhet.  Ava and I will start producing the wristband nullifying glyphs as fast as we can.  You will need to meet with Roger, Shew in the morning and see if based on what they have found out, we can come up with a deployment plan.”

Turning to his father he continued, “
If I understand the Plan and its requirements, your involvement is now over and you cannot use any more Elios influence on the preservation of Eliom, but can I count on you to watch over Ava and mother while I’m busy?”

Soaris nodded grimly, “
That goes without saying; I will be their shadow until this conflict is finished.”

Shane turned to Gerard.  “Gerard, can I turn over the communications aspects with the Luionese government to you? 
Militarily Roger will be able to handle everything but politically I need someone with your influence and experience to make the government feel that we are not working around them but with them.  I have no clue how governments work and why they do the things they do.  Neither do I know why so many in positions of power try to exert control over those that they are supposed to be serving. I feel that we need to have an understanding that all of Eliom were once a unified people and eventually we need to become that way again.”

“I’d be happy to,” his soon to be father-in-law replied.

“Thank you, Ari would you mind getting him set up with the latest comm.” Shane closed his eyes trying to think of anything obvious that he was missing.”

“I’ll take care of it
,” Ari responded.  While Shane paused he added, “I’ll be meeting with Roger and Shew at the Luion Premier’s office tomorrow, I’ll bring Gerard with me and introduce him and let them know that Shew and I are going to be unavailable for a while and that Gerard is our voice until further notice.”  Turning to Gerard he added, “I’ll have to bring you up to speed on some our past discussions. You will like Roger he and his lieutenant will fill you in on anything else you need to know.  I believe that you already know Jacques, the Premier’s Secretary.”

“Oui we have worked together on a number of occasions,” answered Gerard.

Shane opened his eyes, “tomorrow morning I’m going to go to the Valley of the Arc and meet with the Star Seeds and arrange with them what needs to be done and unless there is a reason I should not go alone I’ll visit the Arc and get the Oaths taken care of.” He looked at Soaris.

Soaris smiled momentarily then cleared his throat.  “I admire your determination to get things done but I’m certain that you have a lot of family that will want to attend your Oath Ceremony
.  I also recommend that you take Ava with you to meet with the gryphon of this world as they have already met; I think she would feel hurt if you didn’t.  If you would like my opinion I suggest that you do your introductions tomorrow but do the Oaths as part of your wedding; that way you will have most of your family available for both events; your wedding and the Oaths.  Immediately after the wedding you will need to bind the Stars and then Seal the Arc.”

Shane sighed, “Thanks I didn’t mean to sound selfish.  I guess I got caught up in making a list.  You’re right this needs to be special for Ava.
”

Shane stretched and yawned, “
Is there anything else we need to cover this evening?”  They all looked at each other but no one else had anything to add. “In that case I suggest we bid the women good night and we get some sleep.”  Then as an afterthought Shane stood and said, “I just remembered I have something for each of you.”

The men returned to the kitchen and the ladies gathered around the table looked up. 
Shane said, “If I can interrupt for a moment, I have something for you all.  I have done a lot of looking into this and I believe that what I have will benefit you all; even my Elios born parents.”  Shane held out his hand and closed his eyes.  After a moment seven silver rings appeared on his out stretched hand and he handed one to each of the people in the room.  “Please put these on your right hand ring finger.”  When they all had done so he closed his eyes again and held his hand out again; this time seven small blue dots appeared on his outstretched hand.  He then carefully placed a dot on each of the rings.

“Whoa!” exclaimed Soaris, “You definitely are Jahnon’s grandson.”

“I don’t think that even Ahhan could have matched this,” Laura said proudly.

“I’m sure he could,” Shane responded
modestly, “I got the ideas from his work.  I just am facing a crazy Allyant so I’m constantly trying to figure out how to avoid getting crushed by that awful red junk he keeps casting around.  If Ahhan wasn’t limited by not being able to influence Eliom with too much Elios Lumen I’m sure he would have wiped out the Allyant quite a long time ago.”

Ari cleared his throat, “Ahem, Shane you want to tone it down a little, you’re going have us all seeing spots.”

At Shane’s blank look of lack of understanding, Ava added, “Shane, dear, you’re glowing rather brightly.”

“Sorry,” Shane said embarrassed as he closed his eyes and concentrated. “This happens a lot lately.”  After a moment the glowing diminished and the room momentarily seem
ed darker.

“What does it do?” Louisa held out her hand expertly examining the ring for its jewelry value.  I don’t think I have anything that that will go with the blue dot.
”  Everyone chuckled.

Shane looked keenly at Ava’s mother, “It keeps the Allyant from sucking the soul out of you
, and if for some reason you should get any of the residues of Allyant magic on you it will automatically contain it and starve it; the blue dot will release any Allyant lumen being used against you and it will return to its rightful owner; if the owner is dead then it will dissipate it.  Although after what I saw this morning I don’t recommend you going up against something like that.  It may give you enough time to escape an attack, though.”  Looking at Louisa again he smiled, “I’ll tell you what,” he looked around the group with a mischievous grin, “You are all glyph mages now, or soon to be, let’s see who can be the first one of you to figure out how to put a camouflage capability on it so that it will also accessorize with your wardrobes.  Unfortunately it needs to be worn on the right hand ring finger.”

Soaris and Laura bid everyone good night with Soaris promising that they would
meet in the morning at the lab.  Ari and Leslie said their good byes after Ari explained what had to occur in the morning from what they had discussed in the office.  Shane was the last to leave bidding Ava’s parents and Leslie good night.  They then excused themselves leaving Ava and Shane alone.

“Do you think we can do it,” asked Shane?