The Hive. Every nerd, every geek, every science fiction lover understands the concept of invading space bugs that want to eat our brains. Normal people don’t because they don’t care, because space-bugs didn’t exist two months ago. At least, not to us. What made it worse was that a huge chunk of humanity, normal humanity, was conscripted into the Centauri military to fight these freaking bugs.

The rest of my day was very uneventful. I explored the terrain around my hideouts with Reeanth and nothing bothered us, and I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t the stone axe I conjured for Reeanth that scared them away. I think it was me. Sorcery is part of my soul, and emotions flow from the soul, which means that my abilities are intrinsically linked to the state of my emotions, and I was angry. The earth in front of me warped to be smooth, pebbles crumbled to dust and the ground where I was staring became soft and pliable while nearby plants pulled back out of my way. As we neared the river, the current of the now giant Rappahanock picked up and twisted as if it were dancing in a storm. My family. There was a really good chance that my family was conscripted to fight in a war they never had a stake in.

Reeanth explained to me before we left Yggdrasil that the Centauri Empire had a longstanding pact with the Orion Conglomerate to split up Earth whenever it rejoined the rest of the galaxy, and apparently they meant that in every way except the most literal. The Conglomerate were pure mercantilists, a nice way of saying enterprising slavers, and humans would be the newest fad for the rich and powerful of the universe. All they cared about was money. The Centauri were the peacekeepers, the almost fanatical warlords with Justice as their god. Their mission for the last eighteen hundred years was to contain the scourge of the Hive, and before that, their main enemy were the Hungry Ones.

Her further explanations of galactic politics didn’t help my anger, and neither did her attempts to soothe me by telling me that non-magical humans were the perfect basis for her Empire’s shock troopers. Our lack of mana-exposure meant that we were were incredibly versatile for genetic re-engineering and augmentation in ways that her enhanced warlike race were not. The only bright side I gathered was that they had the technology to cure my little brother of his epilepsy, but I immediately got even angrier because they did that just so he could be another spear-thrower for them.

“You know, you never answered my question about how you got here.” I said to Reeanth as I looked across the turgid river. I breathed in the fresh air, thick with moisture that heralded a coming storm.

“I came through a gate, a different one actually,” she answered, her voice coming from behind me. “An unsanctioned gate.”

“What does that mean? Seriously, if it’s a question one of the people y’all captured would ask, assume I would ask it as well and just explain what you mean.

“All gates are manned and operated by space mages. The Teleporter’s union has a process to make a wizard into a space mage, and then control the gates for most of the galaxy. They are the most powerful force, but largely unnoticed as they don’t care who they transport as long as you pay their fees.”

“I feel like the more I ask questions, the more questions I have, but I don’t want to stop asking as that makes me willfully ignorant. And I’ve dealt with enough of those kinds of people in my life.” I didn’t turn around, instead I stayed facing the river as the clouds darkened overhead. My initial feelings of anger were being lost to the storm as it rolled in gracefully, streaking the evening sky and bowing the trees. “They ‘made’ a mage? Gates are controlled, so does that mean you don’t use spaceships to get around? And if the Teleporter’s Union is the real power, how come they haven’t stopped the Hive?”

I didn’t like her answer.

“They’re completely neutral, our version of what you call Switzerland. And mages can be made, but that process is guarded carefully by the Union. Space mages are some of the most powerful entities in the universe. Mages of other elemental types happen in rare cases or strange circumstances, and are highly coveted by whatever race they belong to. It’s enough to establish a mighty clan if done correctly.” She took a deep breath, “And yes, all space-faring creatures use spaceships, but traveling between the vast emptiness is pointless when we can use a gate that portals to a destination. Some portals are one way and don’t need a space mage, and some are gigantic, and can change destinations when needed.”

Rain began to pelt the surface of the river, soon, uncountable ripples added to the flowing rage of the current. “I love storms. I always have.” I said, turning my face upward and feeling the water stream down my face. “For some reason, the raw beauty of nature’s fury calms me. A movie put on by Mother Nature herself.” Using my water sorcery, I pushed the water away from myself and created a dome around me of dryness. “And now,” I said as I raised my hands to touch the boundary of magic between wet and dry, it’s not enough. My magic resonates with this masterpiece.”

A bolt of lightning cut the angry sky. Thunder boomed after. “Nothing I’ve heard so far eases this pulse of rage I feel.”

“This isn’t safe anymore,” Reeanth said as she entered the dome. Putting her hand on my shoulder, she persisted. “My lord, look up! It isn’t safe! Elementals are behind this storm!” Her stone axe had a spear point between the axe blades, and it was pointing up at the storm where the bulk of an ominous purple cloud touched the mountain top across the river. I’ll never get over the fact that the Ripples changed this world in such a way. Mountains didn’t use to be in Fredericksburg, Virginia. And this river used to be so shallow you could walk across it. But now, it looked like untouched wilderness, bigger than ever.

My gaze followed where she pointed. Small balls of rapidly changing light were dancing in the wind, chasing each other. Some looked silvery while others were flashing yellow, crackling with sparks on its edges. The wind brought in the storm like a blacksmith’s hammer. Rain pounded and the wind pushed and shoved everything in its way. Bolts of light whimsically cracked the night sky as a huge one split off and blasted the lake twenty feet in front of me. The cynical part of me, the everlasting fountain of sarcasm and nihilism, wanted to joke about the preposterous nature of my current experience. The animal side, the oh so very tightly wound instinctive side, wanted me to get the hell outta there. I am not proud of which side won.

“No! Fuck you!” I screamed at the sky, using my command over Svalinn to turn the left gauntlet into a shield while the right gauntlet extended a wickedly sharp three-foot blade that glowed with power. All I could think of in that moment was the once great Toby Keith singing loud and proud in my head, or was that Gungnir? “I’ll put a boot in your ass! It’s the American way!”, which I screamed with no regard to being in tune. I mean, I was never confused where the damn orb got its annoying tendencies from.

I was set. My feet with solid and stable with my earth sorcery making me as steady as the planet’s bedrock. My water sorcery kept the rain off of me but pooled it into four giant blobs of water the size of a small car each that writhed in the storm. Normal humans stay inside during storms like these, and those that get caught out in them get inside as quick as they can. My magic told me that there were no living creatures in the vicinity, and logic dictated that all intelligent life had already found shelter.

“My lord sorcerer!” The shrill tone of her voice let me know that in that moment, she realized that maybe I was a little less than sane. Another bolt of lightning streaked down, caressing the upheld arm holding Svalinn.

It, was, incredible. The rush. I knew what Gungnir could do in combat. The orb had been tested in multiple ways in many different situations. But this, this was different. My enchanted shield didn’t block the lightning, it ate it. I could see the lightning, the raw energy itself, be converted into pure magical energy, mana, and sink into the shield. Shallow runes became visible as the power rushed through the shield, and the excess drained into me where the other half of Svalinn, the bladed gauntlet, pulled the rest of it into itself. This split second of wonder was interrupted by a hailstorm of lightning bolts, each one being eaten and processed, but more and more excess power was being handed off to me by shield-Svalinn and siphoned by blade-Svalinn.

Withdrawing the blade, I connected the two halves of my shield together and they formed a large tower shield and it all stopped. The pounding static discharges, I couldn’t feel them anymore.

“The whisper on the winds never lies.”

“How many more before the sorcerer dies.”

Reeanth gripped my shoulder as she crouched behind me. “They speak,” she said breathlessly, “They’re not supposed to speak.”

“They who woman?”

“The elementals. They’re the equivalent of magical royalty. All races are beneath them in their view, as we are hindered by our bodies from being ‘true magic’.”

I could feel something changing though, but it was hard to pin down in that moment. It’s that moment several days after a hard workout and your muscles feel just a tiny bit bigger, as if they’re ready for another push, another stretch, that your potential increased by just a tiny bit. I was past that. I was full, and Svalinn was getting there too. The raw power contained in my enchanted shield was almost blinding to my magical sight, but the elementals showed no sign of stopping, just raining down lightning on me as if it were rain.

Rain. Screw it. Using my water sorcery, I took the giant blobs of water I had accumulated and put a thick dome of water around us. Svalinn retreated into its gauntlet form, almost sighing in pleasure in the back of my mind. The lightning almost immediately stopped.

“Hidden from sight, protected by rain.”

“Flesh is weak and you shall be slain.”

I turned to Reeanth who was crouched behind me gripping the stone axe so tight that her knuckles were white. “So, the real reason we don’t mess with elementals is because they’re plain creepy right?”

“Did you not see the sheer amount of power they threw at you?” she gasped, incredulous at my reaction. “They can do that relentlessly! Nothing has more magical power than the elementals. They’re linked to their own plane which supplies them with power and they play with no concept that their play reshapes planets!”

“It also seems to up the ambient mana levels in the area as well.”

“This isn’t a time for study or experimentation!” she very quietly growled at me. “We need to go. Those ones were small. We really don’t want to run into the bigger ones.”