The Laws Of Elios (Book 2) (30 page)

“Center,” she said out loud.  “What was Louis
a studying?”

“The Student Glyph Mage, Louisa, was studying the history of the Laws of Light, the relation and integration of the Laws of Light with the Elios, as well as wars and medical facilities, healing and the temporal triage centers of the Elios,”
answered the records center.

Leslie looked
at the door her sister had just exited through. 
Leave it to Louisa to think of the obvious
.  Turning back to her own studies she continued to watch the discourse on the properties and linking of the records centers throughout Eliom.  As she watched the projection in front of her, a floor plan of the records center appeared; depicting in detail each of the four entrances - each with a unique name.  The South entrance was called:  En’Su, the North:  En’Elio, the West:  En’Joi. And lastly the East was called:  En’Mon. 

One by one she queried about each entry, learning what the purpose was for each.  The entrance to the south was the entrance into the Records Center from the city where it resided; this evidentially applied to all of the centers.  EnElio or the North entrance was a port
al to a records center on Elios; a note provided by the Center instructor stated that only Lumen Mages or individuals escorted by a qualified Lumen Mage could pass through.  The instructor also noted that this entrance was disabled and would remain so until the World Singer could activate it.  The West entry was also disabled with the same foot note.  It also contained an additional foot note:  See Transition Worlds.  The Eastern entryway linked all of the Record Centers on Eliom.  To access you simply approached the entryway and either thought of, or called out the name of the city that you wanted to travel to and then crossed the threshold.  Out of curiosity Leslie asked the Center instructor, “How many functioning record centers are there on Eliom?”

“Currently there are three active Records Centers.  Valee, Yllyan, and Coh Y Nord,”
answered the instructor.

“When did the Coh Y Nord Center become available?” asked Leslie.  She hadn’t been aware that Ava had already had a chance to activate the infrastructure of the new city on the North coast; she wondered if perhaps it had never been disabled.

“The Record Center of Coh Y Nord was activated a few moments ago by the Lumen Mage Lauranelle Chashanan,” was the quick reply.

Another Lumen Mage
, thought Leslie as she thought about the unfamiliar name she had just been given.  “Stop instruction.  I’ll be back later,” She spoke out loud and then hurried to the East door.  “Coh Y Nord,” she said as she walked toward the granite filled entry.  It instantly cleared and showed the inside of an identical Center.  She could see a pair of women looking at a large crystal screen at one of the desks with their backs toward her.

Leslie continued walking and soon was inside the other Center.
  She was almost behind the Women when Laura turned and faced her.  “Leslie, how delightful, if I would have known you were coming I would have let you bring the center active for the practice.”

“Aunt Leslie?”  Ava said in surprise turning to see her aunt standing next to them.  “How did you get here?”

“She came through the East door,” Laura interrupted.  “She is the Records Keeper of Eliom after all and has access to all of the centers,”

Eventually
the three women soon had told each other their tales.  Leslie of her mornings studies, Ava and Laura, their tale of the fishing family that they were trying to immigrate to Coh Y Nord.

“Can I help?”  Leslie almost pleaded.  She was as caught up in the excitement as
much as Laura was.

“Absolutely,” Laura exclaimed.  “We need all the help we can find.  Ari and Shew have figured out a way to free an entire company of soldiers but before they can do that they have to get this family out of Jehhet.  We’ve decided to move them here.  We need to get the infrastructure up and going and then find places for over one hundred men women and children.”

Ava stood back from the instructor.  The palm of her hand was etched with the glyphs of the keys to the infrastructure that she had just obtained from the Records center.  “I have an idea.  I know where I can get more help.  Here, “Ava held Leslies hand palm to palm with hers and with her free hand she drew a set of glowing glyphs in the air and willed them into the clasped hands.  Pulling their hands apart the keys that had been etched on Ava were now etched upon Leslie’s palm.  “You two get the infrastructure going, I’m going to grab a monorail ahead of schedule and see if I can get any of the tree folk from Red Oak Glen to come and give us a hand.  Back in a while she flashed a grin and then in a blink she was gone.”

“
How fun that you dropped by, Leslie.  This will be your first activation of a city isn’t it?” beamed Laura.

~~~~~

Nuekirk Laughed as he plucked the one hundred gold, banknote, from the door jam.  Reading the note he casually crumpled it up and dropped it to the floor.  “What a bunch of suckers,” he said with disdain.  He had stolen nearly a thousand golds in silvers and notes since he had been found stowing aboard the sloop.  The men who had caught him were obvious very successful artifact smugglers but they were idiots when it came to being conned.  He didn’t buy their stories that they were mages and spies.  If he had had access to the artifacts that they had he would say that too.  It was a perfect story.  The war was a perfect cover for smuggling.  Pocketing the money Nuekirk headed to the café.

Genae met Nuekirk at the door.  Grabbing his arm in a flirtatious manner she steered him from the building before he had completely entered.  “Are we going to your place?”  Nuekirk blinked in pleasant surprise
as he commented in a hopeful voice.  He still had yet to be able to coax the attractive waitress into taking him to where she lived.

“Better yet,” she replied with a coy smile.  “I thought that we could go back to your place.”

Nuekirk stopped in his tracks.  The note that had been folded with the money was now suddenly important.  “Um, that could be a problem,” he stalled.  “The guys I’m working for told me to take the day off and sealed all the entrances.  I think they are going after some major artifacts today.  They never let me in on where they get them from.”

The Allyant possessed waitress smiled knowingly.  “You’re not playing hard to get are you?” she said then giggled playfully.

“We can try,” responded Nuekirk. As he silently hoped that he could access the doors and a chance of being with her more intimately.

A half hour later, with every effort exhausted Nuekirk and a very cross Genae stood outside the door that should have allowed them to port to where the sloop was.  Pechor kn
ew from looking through the waitress’s eyes that the lumen had been removed from the glyphs that the boy had tapped endlessly; there would be no way to activate them without a Lumen mage or one of the Elios mechanical imbuement devices.  It had been his goal, to have the waitress seduce the young man, and to find a way onto the boat so that he could kill or at the least sabotage the mage and the assassin that persisted in haunted his memories.  As a last effort he caused the waitress to be affectionate and convincing.  “I have an idea.  Let’s go to the docks and see if it is there.  We can board your ship from the pier.”

Nuekirk knew that the ship wasn’t docked at the
pier - that it was in fact moored just outside Jehhet harbor.  Figuring that it would give him time to talk his girlfriend into perhaps going somewhere more intimate, he agreed.  An hour later the pair stood looking at an empty berth.  “It was here earlier,” feigned Nuekirk, sensing that his relationship might be at an end.  “They must be using it.”

Pechor had had enough.  He had spent most of the day chasing this boy around Lu Y Onton
on a wild goose chase.  The boy was a useless greedy urchin who clearly thought only with his glands.  It’s no wonder the mage and the man he knew as Stafford didn’t include him on their missions.

“
I’m hungry,” Genae announced casually.  “Let’s go eat.” Looking around the quiet pier she added, “This is a pretty desolate dock.  Aren’t you worried about being robbed?”  She reached over and held his hand.  Looking down she glanced at the pair of rings on his right hand and grew excited.  “Did I ever tell you how much I like jewelry?  Can I try on your rings?”

Nuekirk looked at the rings
- the warnings of never to remove them long since fled at the touch of her hand – he hastily reached down and removed the first; placing it in her palm.  As he attempted to remove the second it stuck and wouldn’t budge.  “I’m afraid that I can’t get this one off.”  He said tugging and twisting it for emphasis. He lifted his hand to show the stuck band.

Genae leaned back and held out a red glowing sphere.  “I have something for you,” she said suggestively.  Placing the sphere into his hands she wrapped his fingers around the Allyant seed and with a vice like grip she held it fast.

Pechor in his new host drained the life from the waitress and casually shoved her off the pier into the murky water.  Examining the ring that Nuekirk had removed he studied it.  As he had suspected, it was a shield ring; if the boy would have left it on he would have never been able to take control of the youth.  With a thought the Allyant mage summoned a vast burst of the soul magic at his command and melted the ring into a lump of brass and discarded it into the water as well.  Examining the other ring he could find no glyphs.  Using magic he removed the stubborn band from his host’s finger. Looking on the inside he saw the glyphs of healing and transport.  The ring was obviously meant to be used in conjunction with another; the spell was there but no power or lumen resided with in it.  Cursing himself for destroying the first without a closer examination he reconsidered his options.

Pechor began to scour through the mind of his newest host and discovered the many lies that he
spoken in an effort to impress the waitress.  He also discovered that the teen had known many things that he had not mentioned; likely due to him not understanding their importance.  The images of the young man’s memories flashed past like a play.  He found where the sloop was moored, that both Shew and Stafford were former agents to the King of Infin but it was the Mage known as Shane that was the real mystery.  As much as he picked through the memories of the youth it became apparent that youth had feared the mysterious mage.  Also attached to the memories of the mage he was able to learn that he was going to be married in a week and that a major ceremony was planned in some unnamed mountain valley.  He also found why the lad had stayed away from the young mage.  While he worked his way backwards through the boy’s memories he discovered the incident where he had been threatened to be dropped from the sky into the ocean.  From that time forth the youth had actively avoided the young mage.  Who was this mage and why did he seem so familiar and formidable.  He decided that the ring was the key. He painstakingly began to read the glyphs that he was certain the boy had had no understanding of and slowly discovered where the teleport would take him.  With sinister glee he read the last two miniscule glyphs.  He not only had the location of the Star Seeds, but he now knew just what ceremony was going to take place.  Thanks to the boys memories he knew when.

Ready or not,
Pechor decided.  The Starblade was nearly fueled to capacity;
I will take it on a test flight and sink a boat this evening,
he said to himself.  He could would to the Great Ones as successful after all.  He controlled the lumen of nearly a million people and soon the Star Seeds would be his.

~~~~~

Kaysee sat opposite Leo as he finished up showing her the glyphs that would be helpful to her if she needed to sift and separate very small items. 
He seems to always think of practical uses for lumen magic,
she thought to herself.  As she paused she summoned up the courage to change the subject.  “Leo does your instructor say anything about recording your thoughts or memories?” she asked carefully.

“I don’t know,” he said thoughtfully.  “What makes you ask?”

“Oh, no reason,” she temporized.  “I was just thinking that it would be a great way to transfer ideas or store memories, you know, in case you forget to write something down.”

“Let’s have peek, shall we,” he smiled.  “This could be a great idea.  You don’t know how often I misplace my stylus and have
had to turn the place inside out just to make a few notes.  If one could simply use a glyph to make a note that would be extremely convenient.”

“What would you have to make to contain it?”  Kaysee prodded.

“Great question, Kay, Let’s find out shall we?”  Leo said as he expanded his instructor to become several large crystal screens and was soon drilling through pages upon pages of glyphs. With a muttered sound now and then he continued his reading with Kaysee patiently watching for well over an hour.  Finally he paused. “This is interesting.  Yes this would work perfectly.  Oh no, that’s not good.  We would have to be very careful.” 

Looking up he placed
his elbows on the desk, his fingers forming a steeple in front of his mouth and nose with his thumbs under his chin.  “It’s entirely possible, but there are some ethical issues.  The footnotes are packed with warnings and cautions.”  He paused as if deciding to expand.  Finally he sighed, “A lot of what I’m going to explain will not be available to you until you are well past glyph mage and close to the end of your glyph mastery training.  So if I go off on some unfamiliar tangents please bear with me.”