Chapter 11: War! (What is it good for?)

When I returned to the house – and went through the normal floral password check – I arrived into the hallway and signed in.

The solider on duty saluted me, "Sir, we've had notification of your promotion. Captain Bolland would like to see you, Sir." He said.

I returned the salute – although since I was in normal clothing there was no need for either of us to salute I subsequently found out – and went to the Captain's office, I knocked on the door.

There was a moment's delay and then Captain Bolland opened the door, "I understand that there has been a change of command here." He said without preliminaries.

"So I understand Captain." I said and waited.

"Oh, yes, do come in Major. I've been informed that I am to hand over this establishment to you and Major Moodie, I've tried to keep the inventory together and the guard is to remain here under your orders. I know we've had our differences but the situation hadn't been clearly outlined to me." He said in some way of apology.

"So I've been led to believe, you understand that my position was dictated to by my orders, I'm sorry if I was offhand but I was told not to let anyone else know about the section I was creating." Yes, I can bullshit with the best of them.

"Well, I'll be offsite later today. I'll ensure that the ranks are informed of the change. They will expect a talk later." He said and nodded his head.

I decided that it was my cue to leave and so I did so.

I got to the school and was met by Shifu. "So we have a new school?" He said – I think the Nemesis had already beaten me.

"Yes, and we have a new directive. Shifu, I need a favour from you ... can you take over the role of Head master and sort out the training, I'm going to be busy outside for the next few days." I said

"If I may ask, what you will be doing?" Shifu asked me.

"I'm visiting a private detective, one who isn't expecting me." I said with a smile.

"Is that wise? Will you not be letting our enemies know you are aware of them?" Shifu asked.

"That is the whole point, I can't just sit back and not do anything, and Anderson's been trying to attack me, now it's my turn to fight back. But I won't be alone." I said and muttered a phrase, immediately, I was surrounded by Nemesi's all of whom resembled Asterisks with several sharp points, these were not for watching, oh no, these are for attack. My gloves are off now.

"Are you going now?" Shifu asked.

I shook my head, "Not just yet, I need to study further and for that I have to rest." I said making my way to the room that was reserved as my bedroom.

I was interrupted by a tornado that was running down the corridor, "That stupid f$%k ... Oww!" it was Rachael who apparently wasn't appreciating her lessons.

"What's up now Rachael?" I asked pleasantly

"It's that bloody ... hey nothing happened? Anyway that bloody healer bitc ... Oww! Woman." She said as a spark from her voice coach activated.

"Alright, now calm down and try to tell me exactly what she's done." I said turning to my office and opening the door, I ushered the girl in and sat her down, I didn't sit behind my desk but sat beside her.

"She's daft, she keeps telling me that I've got it in me to be a healer, but that's just rubbish. I'm just a drop-out from the streets; even Mum and Dad don't want me." She said and I could see she was trying to hold back her tears.

I couldn't hold her, it wouldn't be right. "But you have dreams don't you, I don't mean the times when you're asleep but in yourself." I said.

"Well, yeah, of course I have. But it didn't include being stuck in this f$%k..." She looked up to where the voice coach was hovering "Why didn't it stop me?" She asked as the expected spark didn't emerge

"I told it not to, I understand that your language is part of you. And I don't want you to be forced into anything. Now let me try to explain Sur'ha's thinking." I said.

"Why the f$%k would I want to know how others think." Rachael said getting up from the chair.

"Because then you'd find out exactly what they feel about you ... but you already know that don't you? You can sense what people are feeling ... and that scares you, scares you right down to your shoes." I said remaining still.

"I'm not scared of anyone! You just ask my gang, we ruled the streets, knowing when to duck out of the way of snoops and Social Services." She said proudly.

I smiled, "And you were the one who told them who was doing what, weren't you?" I said encouragingly

"Well, duh? Who else could tell them, I only had to look at someone and know what they wanted." Rachael said crossing her arms and smiling.

"So what's so different?" I asked her.

"It can't be true, nobody feels that way. She just wants to help people who are injured, there's nothing about money or anything like that." Rachael said and then shook her head. "And you're just as bad! You want to stop this man who's causing you these f$%king problems" She said and then put her hand over her mouth.

"Yes, I do. Because he's working magic purely from the Black books, causing harm without caring, in a way it's my duty to stop him." I told her.

"So what's wrong with using the Black Books, what's all the fuss about anyway?" Rachael asked finally returning to her seat and sitting down.

I went back to the globe of Zorba'n before the Magic War that devastated it, "This is a world where they had knowledge of Magic, and every mage would do whatever he wanted and would fight any other mage to get it."

"So? If they're powerful enough then they should be able to." Rachael said.

"Ah, but where did the power come from? They wouldn't take power from themselves as it would mean that they wouldn't be able to do anything afterwards," I waited for a response and continued, "and so they took the power from the planet itself while they fought each other."

Rachael paused for some moments thinking and then she shook her head, "So what? The planet is large; it could cope with a few idiots." She said.

I changed the globe to the modern day Zorba'n. "This is their world now. It's still recovering from the depletion of its resources. It might never recover completely. To get over this the ruling mages have created something called The Accord, all development of spells has been curtailed, Mages are restricted to White spells that uses their own power. Any Black books are removed from their libraries."

"Hold on if they're doing that ... then why aren't you doing the same? I've got plenty of Black Books in my library; you've never taken any of those." Rachael said.

"Because we have the example of Zorba'n to look to, we can see what the misuse of the power can cause. Also you'll find that some of your Black books are changing colour as the cumulative power of several people can be used, not the planet." I told her.

"So why are you bothering to tell me all this, why don't you just tell us never to use Black Books?" Rachael asked puzzled.

I gave a laugh, "Because you wouldn't listen to me if I just said 'you can't cast that spell.' without giving a reason. But this way you know the background to the reason and can use your judgement. This is the aim of the school. Our use of the Art is so new that we are deficient in several areas; Healing is the main one, so you see I had to call on Sur'ha to travel from the safety of her planet to here where she's never been before. So we need people who are able to heal others."

Rachael frowned, "So you're telling me that I can make a difference? But I'm just a drop-out, I don't study and I'm useless at it anyway." She said

I smiled, "I can't bake a cake, but I can try my best ... why don't you just give it a try, you might find that you enjoy it."

"But what if I don't like it, then what?" She asked.

"Then you can try something else, you're not locked into anything here, and we hope to give you a general idea of the area's available. Or you can be a journeyman mage, with a little bit of everything. Just give us a chance, that's all I'm asking." I said

"Why should I believe you?"

"Trust your feelings and how you know what others feel ... what does that tell you about me?" I said watching her.

She closed her eyes and concentrated, I could feel something flowing from her, and then she seemed to relax, "You mean it ... every word of it, you're not trying to hide anything from me and you're not trying to get anything from me either." She said.

I shook my head with a laugh, "Oh yes I am, I'm trying to get you to understand that we are helping you to learn your way in the Art. All you have to do is to use your empathic skills to see what is wrong with people and to learn how to use the magic to heal them. Sur'ha is the one who can steer you in this; listen to her, she has more knowledge than anyone else here."

"So what are you saying, I should stay here to 'find myself' is that it?" She asked looking at me with lowered eyes.

I shook my head, "Not at all. I'm saying you should stay here to see how you can help others, you could be the start of the Healers Guild on Earth." She looked up at me with a 'yeah sure' look in her eyes. "Think about it, that's all I'm saying. Learn what Sur'ha has to offer and then you are the expert here on Earth, you can teach the others students who have the Talent and the will to learn Healing, so what do you say?"

She thought for a few more moments, "Okay then, I'll do it, but can't you get rid of that flipping floater?" She said.

I smiled at her avoidance of swearing and the unintentional double meaning. "Not just yet, you're improving but you still need the odd reminder. Charlotte's in charge of that, I'm just the headmaster ... for the time being, although Shifu's going to be taking over while I'm away." I said and got up, holding out my hand to her. "Now if you'll go and find Sur'ha and watch what she does, study how she's treating the person she's healing and how you can do the same." I said taking her to the door and showing her back into the hallway.

"Okay Teach, I'll go and see the bitc ... Oww!" The voice coach was back and working.

I opened my eyes inside my library, the computer screen was flashing away to get my attention. I sat in front of it. 'So you're going to see Perkins?' the screen displayed.

"You know I am, but I need some more spells than just defence and protection. I need to scare him so much that he's going to call for help." I said.

'Well I've found a few spells that will help you, here they are.' The screen displayed the spells and I realised that I now had them in my memory after just glancing at the screen.

"I see ... but I need to be able to make an entrance." I said and then I saw the screen was displaying a spell to creating a mini-tornado in front of me, one that could be directed.

So I was ready, I had the spells, the only thing I didn't have was the power to use them, 'Time for Torchy the Battery Boy!' the screen said and a yellow book fell from one of the shelves onto the floor. I walked over and picked it up – 'Energy Cells and how to use them' was the title.

I read the book twice, fixing the spell firmly in my mind and then went back to the computer screen. 'We need to practice.' It was displaying. "You're right, and if we do it here then the power used will be marginal." I said.

The screen morphed back into the humanoid form and walked towards the side of my library that was set aside for training and as I stepped into it I was struck by a blast of air which nearly pushed me off my feet. I pictured a snow-plough effect and the air was diverted either side of me.

"not bad, but let's see what you can do with this!" the ersatz person said as it pushed air at my body and pulled air from my legs, I fell to the ground to find that the pulling air was now focused on my face, sucking out the air from my lungs ... this could kill me!

I realised that I had to do something here, a barrier in front of my mouth allowing air to flow normally and then my own tornados to attack my enemy, I threw a force into his stomach and a pulling of air from his mouth, the two together made him retch as his stomach tried to empty its contents.

Immediately his attack on me stopped as he tried to stop himself from throwing up, and I was onto my feet and, using the talent that Shifu had showed me, I swept his feet from under him and then cast the spell to hold him in place, unable to move.

I let him struggle for a few minutes and then released him, the head nodded and then it walked back to the table where it settled back into the screen unit. 'Good, I almost had you though; I thought you'd fail when I started hoovering your mouth. But you managed to stop that and attack me back. The change from magical to mundane was a surprise and then the final immobilisation spell was enough to win. Although you have to consider what you are going to do with the mage that you defeat, a strong word won't have much effect on them.' The screen showed.

"I was worried; I thought that you couldn't kill from direct use of magic? What's gone wrong?" I asked the screen.

'It's another loophole, the actual spell was for creating a vacuum effect to use at a specific location, but when it's directed at the mouth it would suck the air from the victim, the vacuum spell is the main spell in use, the direction is a secondary spell, so the effect was due to indirect magic.' The screen explained.

I thought about this, the spell in itself is not dangerous, but in association with a second spell it was lethal! I couldn't let this be known ... not just yet, I needed some way to hide the spell but still have it outside. It was a pity that the words were written down, if only we had some invisible ink. You know where you can't read the message. Just like writing on glass with a glass stylus in clear ink.

I realised that what was needed was not a normal page, but one that can be seen through, like plastic or glass and if the writing was also in clear plastic. I watched as the spell showed itself in a Green Book, and then the colour faded ... well not faded exactly, cleared as if it was water, or translucent, on opening the book I could barely make out the words of the spell.

I nodded, that would keep the spell away from the lazy mage, it was a case of 'if they can't read it then it won't be of interest to them'. I put the spell into the bookcase and then returned to my office.

It's strange but after visiting my library I'm always refreshed, although I do have a dry mouth. I poured a glass of water from the jug on my desk.

I knew that it was time for me to move; I concentrated on my flat and uttered the spell. There was a feeling of spinning and then my office vanished to be replaced by my apartment. I turned on the light and pulled the power from it into my body, changing it to bio-electricity as I did so.

I checked the fridge for some food and came up with rashers of bacon and then some eggs. I quickly cooked up the meal and took it to the table, looking out of the window as I did so, someone had left some clothes on the iron railings opposite and some people were keeping away from them while still trying to watch my flat.