Chapter 7: Enemies or Allies

Eleric floated in a lotus position, his eyes closed as he focused his energies through the circle and into their leader Zoe Long. The group was attempting to discover the source of the unusual disturbance that had affected them all. They were having difficulties however; one of their number and their main clairvoyant had not arrived. Eleric continued to concentrate on the flow of energies, guiding the energy of his fellow members, controlling the ebb and flow, ensuring that Zoe was able to handle and utilize the energies she was receiving. Eleric was the best medium of the group and the most capable member in the circle with handling the energies he was manipulating.

After a few minutes Eleric felt the energies begin to rebound as Zoe came out of her trance. He slowly ebbed the flow and began to return what he was receiving back to the source. This was the most crucial and dangerous portion of the ritual. If the flow was returned to the rest of the circle too fast he could burn out his friends, if the flow was returned too slowly he would burn himself out. The entire process of breaking the ritual took over an hour, but finally Eleric felt the energies trickle away and Zoe removed herself from the Circle. Each member released their link and separated from the Circle in order of rank, with Eleric being the last.

Zoe watched the group carefully, assessing them with her mage sight, checking their body’s reactions as they separated themselves from the rest of the circle. As leader of the circle it was her responsibility to ensure no residual effects from the ritual lingered in any member. To ensure their bodies were unharmed by the flow they channeled. She took her responsibility seriously, she approached each member talked with them, asked them routine questions, insuring they were coherent and that their mind was just as responsive and whole as their bodies. The final checks required her to astraly project herself and ensure nothing was attracted by the ritual that could have affected their spirits. Once her checks were completed and everyone released themselves from the link, she gathered them for a discussion as to what she found.

The circle gathered around the small table in the main room of Eleric and Elise’s shack. They all looked to their leader, she was a short woman of five foot three inches, with long raven black hair and brown eyes, as a thirty year old mother of two she did a lot to maintain a healthy athletic figure. She looked around at her circle, her eyes coming to a stop on her husband Luke, giving him a worried smile looked over the entire group as she addressed them. “Well I am sorry to say, I was unable to discern much on the source of the emanation that we all felt. I was able to locate the epicenter, somewhere near the town of Oodnadatta. However residual effect from the source prevented me from scrying the actual town. I was able to get within 10 miles of the town before everything went black.”

The group looked around and began to mumble to themselves. Finally one of the older members of the group, an aborigine man by the name of Allambee spoke up, his voice was rather unusual, he spoke in the native language of his people with an English translation magically superimposed over it. “There is a sizable population of our people in Oodnadatta. If something has happened there it would be a great loss to our people. We need to investigate this further. Where is Mr. Rayne?”

Zoe shook her head. “I do not know Allambee, he is not answering my calls, I have not heard from him since the incident...”

Her statement was interrupted by the door to the shack opening and a tall figure in black robes stepped into the room, heavy rain and thunder could be heard through the doorway as the room was lit up by the flashes of lightning, wind howled trough the shack blowing out the ritual’s candles. He looked up as he pulled his hood back and removed his wet fedora from his head. He looked up towards the circle with a frown. “I am sorry I am late, however I felt that speed was of the essence in this case. I have investigated the site of the disturbance. I am sorry to say no one from Oodnadatta survived the incident.”

Allambee turned towards the newest arrival. “Rayne you should not have gone alone. Your actions could have endangered the circle...”

“I have done nothing to endanger the circle. I waited for the threat to leave the area and then went and investigated the scene first hand. How is that endangering the circle?” Josh Rayne replied as he pulled of his robe and duster and hung them on wooden pegs by the door.

Allambee started to answer Rayne’s question but was interrupted by Zoe. “We don’t have time for arguments. Rayne what did you discover?”

“After sensing the disturbance, I immediately attempted to do a scrying. I was unfortunately unable to even pierce the shielding of the creature that created the event. Once I recovered from my attempt to scry it and realized that whatever it was had left, I opened a Gateway to the source...”

Allambee jumped from his seat and stepped in front of Rayne, “You are reckless and a fool. How could you have gone to the source of the disturbance without first assessing what had caused it... ?” He yelled as he poked Rayne in his chest.

Rayne looked down at the old Aborigine and shook his head. Eleric tried his best to not laugh at the site before him. Rayne at six foot six inches towered over the old shaman’s five foot three inch frame. The sight of the sixty year old aborigine poking Rayne in his chest and doing his best to appear intimidating was almost enough to make Eleric laugh, that was if the entire situation was not so tense to begin with.

Rayne interrupted Allambee as he pushed the smaller man’s hand away from his chest and stepped up to Zoe. “As I was saying, I opened a Gateway to the source. It was a small community in the middle of Southern Australia. The first thing I noticed was that the entire town was dead. I don’t mean just the people, everything was dead. There were no bodies, no dead animals or plants. There was nothing, I did a quick scan of the soil and there was nothing. Looking around I noticed that several houses appeared to have received the worst of the damage so I approached them warily. As I approached the homes I could sense the residue of spatial energies. I entered the structure carefully so as not to disturb anything and so as to leave no evidence of my intrusion. I found the source of the creature’s arrival in one of the back rooms. There were the remains of a ritual scattered around the room, this room also contained the only body I had seen since my arrival. It was of a young teen, he had been torn in half. In his hand I found the ritual he was trying to cast. He was trying to bind a Daemon, but the name on the paper was of no Daemon I had ever heard of.” As Rayne finished his statement he handed a blood stained book to Zoe “Here is his ritual book, hopefully you can get more from it than I did.”

Zoe took the book from Rayne’s hand and handed over to her husband Luke. He reluctantly took it from Zoe and carried it into the kitchenette. Zoe then turned back to Rayne. “Did you discover anything else?”

“Yes, two more interesting facts. First, the area of desecration seams to have a radius of ten miles. I could not sense anything alive within that radius. Second when I found the point that the creature left the area, there was still a lot of Spatial residue left behind, judging on the amount of power it used, it is more powerful than even the entire circle could handle and wherever it went, it was not on Earth.” Rayne replied with a frown.

Zoe looked around at her friends and frowned. “We need to figure this out. We need to get a grip on what happened today and try to prevent it from happening again.” She stated, turning to the two Aborigine’s “Allambee and Burnam, get with your fellows and see if any of them know anything, if they don’t, then see what they can learn. Luke and I will contact the other circles and see if they have learned anything more. We will also take this book...” She said with disdain as she walked up to the kitchenette and held up the bloody ritual book between two fingers. “with us and see what we can learn from it. Rayne please continue your personal investigations and alert me as soon as you discover anything. Yuri, Eleric, Elise continue your studies. We will all meet back here in one week to discus what we have discovered.”

As the circle began their preparations to leave the shack, Rayne approached Yuri Saito, the newest member of the circle. “Yuri-san, how are your studies coming along?”

The young woman turned towards Rayne and bowed deeply. “They are going well sensei, I have been practicing your lessons and I believe I will have mastered them soon.”

Rayne smiled at the young woman and bowed slightly to her “Aga Rinasai, Yuri-san, very good. I look forward to our next lesson. Practice hard and it will come to you with time.”

With a slightly confused look on her face Yuri looked towards Rayne. “Hai Sensei.” She said as she once again bowed.

Rayne returned her bow once again and headed for the door of the shack. Elise approached Yuri with concern. “Yuri are you ok, you look troubled?”

Yuri turned to her friend and tried her best to smile. “Elise-san, it is nothing, I am just not used to the way you do things here. In my home no Sensei would treat a student in such a casual manor. It is unsettling to me.”

Elise smiled and motioned to her friend “Yuri, It is ok, he means no insult, it is just his way. He is trying to learn your ways though. Come I will help you pack your stuff and we can talk about more pleasant things.”

The two young women headed over to a small bag and started packing up Yuri’s materials and books. It was not long before the two were giggling and laughing like a pair of school girls. Eleric looked at his younger sister and her friend. “Enjoy your fun while you can my dear sister, because I am afraid that soon these days will be behind us.” He said under his breath with a concerned frown.

...

David sat in the command chair on the bridge of the Lanvy staring at the pad in his left hand. The Remote Interface Unit had brought it to him thirty minutes ago; it contained the list of the training that the newest members of his crew had chosen. Dr. Jones had chosen to remain a Doctor with a specialization in neurology and Nano-technology. Nurse Debbin also chose to become a Doctor, with a specialization in genetics. David saw an opportunity here and had requested that The Lanvy include the basics of the Remote Interface Units construction and regulations in her training. Nurse Jimenez and Dale had both decided to pursue jobs that differed from their former lives. Jimenez chose to become a pilot and requested specialization on the Heavy Gunnery Fighters; Karen decided to become a bridge officer. David chose to have her trained on the helmsman position. The less that the Lanvy had to automate, the more resources it could use elsewhere to keep the ship running.