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Screw waiting. That looks like a gate, like a ‘walk-between-realms’ kind of gate, the kind of gate that gods and monsters and alien armies waltz through as they laugh maniacally about how they’re going to grind our bones to make our bread. Fuck, it does look big enough for giants. Great, that’s just what this world needs, giants, as if giant monkeys and dogs and crocodiles weren’t enough.

The air from way up here on Tuki’s back was frosty as the early morning chill hadn’t worn off. Winter was well on its way and even the southern region of what used to be the United States didn’t want to change its weather patterns for the apocalypse. Spot sat in my lap, acting as a heat buffer to prevent speed-induced hypothermia. The peace of the early morning was really at odds with my pounding heart and racing thoughts. Looking back through my memories with my consciousness sorcery, I remember covering one up with stone back before I really knew everything, and there’s a glimpse or two of one from slivers of Reeanth’s memories that I’d been able to glean. Combing through what I possess of Rath’s memories wasn’t really that helpful, as dragons seem to have their own workaround to walking between dimensions.

As the encampment came into view, I decided to go with the most diplomatic option first, saying hello. Asking Tuki to drop us off about a mile before what I assumed the edge of the territory, I made sure Spot knew to stay in small-dog form and that as little magical energy as possible was leaking from my gear. Svalinn was in gauntlet mode and Gungnir was an unassuming dagger at my waist. I looked well armored, but not like any sorcerer I’d imagine. I always pictured a Gandalf looking dude, big robes with a fancy staff, and my silvery platinum and iridium covered bone armor almost made me appear as some kind of fancy magical knight. To round out the disguise, I used my consciousness sorcery to branch off a background process in my mind to project an unassuming wave of mental magic that simply communicated ‘not an active threat’. I couldn’t guarantee that these people wouldn’t instantly attack, and convincing them of something that clearly wasn’t true would be harder than a deflection, as I am not currently a threat to them as long as they don’t attempt to harm or threaten me.

Tuki’s mental bond let me know that he was way up above the camp by now, waiting on my call to swoop down and get us out if we needed him. Spot bumped me in the leg, reassuring me that he was dog enough to muscle us out of there as well. Taking a deep breath, I turned and started jogging towards the camp. Spot easily kept up, his optimistic canine demeanour not knowing or really caring that this might be the most dangerous or dumb thing that we’ve ever done, he just liked to run. I couldn’t help but chuckle just a little bit, loving the way that animals could be so in the moment.

And me, trying to live in the moment, almost got myself killed. Not paying attention to how fast we were going, we got pretty close to the edge of the camp and I hadn’t even been in touch with my ongoing magical scans. A warning siren sounded in my head pulling me up short just as a magical veil came down revealing ten huge tower shields facing me, their silvery spiked fronts covered in black runes that crackled with energy. As if that weren’t intimidating enough, each shield was held by a giant Centauri warrior that held a fearsome futuristic black carbine propped on top of their shields. It was a shield wall complete with guns; I didn’t miss the hilts of swords sticking out of their backs either.

Now that I was actually paying attention to what my magical senses were telling me, I could feel the strangeness of their firearms. There was no detectable explosive material like gunpowder at the base of their bullet, but each bullet was shaped like a shotgun shell. Speeding up my perception of time temporarily as I stopped with my hands up, I took a closer look at the bullets pointed my way with my senses. The entire weapon system looked more like a miniaturized railgun than anything, but the shotgun-ish rounds themselves were filled with pieces of silver coated diamond spiky ball that were half the size of a pencil eraser. Keeping in mind the size difference here between a regular human and a Centauri human, the rounds were also proportionally bigger as well. One blast from that thing would probably cut me in half, and maybe Spot too if he got shot in his smaller form.

On the back of their tower shields just above where their arms were gripping the handholds, I could make out magazines full of different kinds of ammo. The more I thought about it, the more it makes sense. As far as I know, the Centauri don’t have sorcerers but they do have battle wizards, and if you couple that with a blend of futuristic technology and magic, you get beefed up magical guns that would any nerd drool. But that’s the kind of firepower it takes to live in a universe where magic is real and even dogs are capable of easily eating unarmed humans, let alone the kinds of monstrosities that our outdated legends describe.

Mentally commanding Spot to sit next to me and look friendly, I carefully and very slowly took a step back with my hands up. “I mean no harm!” I said clearly, “I’m just looking for some help. Please, is there someone I can talk to?” Their helmets covered their faces, so I couldn’t even tell if they understood me.

“English? Please, anyone? I can talk mind to mind if that helps?” Opening up the barriers to my mind, I kept my consciousness’s tendrils out in the open but ready to retreat or attack at the first sign of danger. One of the Centauri on the edge of the shield wall, left his shield standing there and faced me, his gun pointed straight at me as his other hand pulled the sword from its sheath. He yelled something I didn’t understand, but from his motions it was clear he wanted me to get on the ground. Slowly taking another step back, I raised my voice. “I mean no harm, I promise, but I am not doing that!” I said, shaking my head, trying to get across that I wanted to talk to someone but I wasn’t submitting to anything.

The soldier’s yelling turned into a bark. As one, the other nine Centauri lifted their shield walls, and the unmanned shield came with the rest, took a step forward and slammed them down. This wasn’t really working the way I was hoping. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, and whatever Rath gave me forever ago that allowed me to understand Reeanth had clearly worn off. She could speak English now due to our magically enforced bond, but that doesn’t help me now when she’s at least three days away.

“Reeanth Le’Talv! Reeanth Le’Talv!”

The bristling intimidation tactics stopped as all ten of them looked back and forth at each other. I knew that Reeanth was a ways away, but they sure didn’t, and I could work with that. While their faces weren’t visible, I could feel their residual emotions leaking out, familiarity with what I said and confusion as well.

“I know Reeanth Le’Talv, let me speak to someone who knows English or a damn good translation spell!”

The way they hunched forward again with their weapons pointed at my face communicated that they understood somehow that I cursed in their direction and assumed that I was insulting them, even though it wasn’t directly meant for them. Centauri number ten outside of the shield wall, who I assumed was in charge, took a couple steps back and raised his forearm holding the sword near his mouth and started speaking. His gun was still pointed at me, but lowered as if he recognized that I wasn’t an immediate danger to him or his men.

As I was waiting, I took the time to take mental pictures of what my senses were showing me about Centauri number ten’s armor and weaponry. Reeanth’s weapons were gone when she swore herself to me and her armor was in seriously bad shape, but this guy had the full kit. Their system of magic was so different to mine. Reeanth was right, they didn’t have batteries, but what they did have was a sort of flowing closed system. They banked their energy preservation process through a system of rune channels and devices with their body as the primary producer!

In layman’s terms, they did not have batteries to store their energy, but they did a bunch of strange runes clustered every couple of inches from each other that acted as a kind of mana sink, where it pooled until it overflowed and then traveled down another channel to another mana sink. They barely lost any energy as the magical power wasn’t actually being stored, but moved around like a closed hydroponics system. The bleedoff of the power that the system couldn’t catch was constantly absorbed by their weapons which also had a similar system of runes and channels. The Centauri body itself, the flesh and blood, was the main generator of power, the spring that fed the energy into the suit, and at the end of the runic channels, the magical power was fed back into the body. It was genius, they worked with what they had and created a kind of energy preservation system that mimicked a river. Without being able to store power, but having the capability to produce it and the technology to channel it, they created a sort of web of constantly circulating magical power.

At the fingertips of their armor, and at other combat contact points such as feet, knees, and elbows, were runes that gave off a feeling of hunger, which I deduced were a kind of vampiric structure, allowing them to directly drain enemies of their mana. This would allow them to offset the cost of using their magic while in combat. Noting the same runes along the blade of Number Ten’s sword, I turned my attention to their shields. The more I applied my consciousness sorcery to my magical senses, the more I could feel or almost hear some kind of intent behind the runes.

A grouping of runes near each of the spikes on their shields felt hungry, obviously some kind of blood or mana draining function, and then there were lines of runes along the seams of shields where the adjoining one connected. Those sounded like stubborn dogs that won’t let go of food when you’re trying to open their mouth. My guess is that was the binding mechanism for the shields to withstand a charge or assault from larger enemies. A cross-like inscription of runes ran up the middle and trailed along every edge of the individual shield, invoking the strange image of kids playing hot potato. Now that one was confusing, something about transference or quickly getting rid of something. The feeling got stronger until it hit me, that was their version of kinetic transference runes. When you put it all together, the vampiric runes would make the enemy bleed if they crashed into the shield and drain them of their mana at the same time. Then, the binding mechanisms at the edges would keep the shield wall a single unit the entire time while the kinetic runes would absorb the charge and channel the kinetic energy from the blast or assault into the earth. I bet some of that kinetic energy also got converted into pure mana for their gear and armor but I couldn’t make out the back of the shields too well.

Focus, focus, speed up perception of time for a moment and screenshot everything for later . . . . . aaaaaaannnnd done! I finished up just in time for three even bigger Centauri soldiers to arrive and start conversing with the guy I designated Number Ten. Two were pointing at me, their voices quickly getting louder while the third mediated with his arms crossed. Spot sent the mental equivalent of a question to me, now? Giving a firm no as a reply, I sent down the feeling of me petting him on the head to keep him calm.

While I was keeping my dragon-canine from hulking out and playing ‘fetch’ with the Centauri, my own patience was beginning to wear thin. I thought about how easy it would be, use a bit of earth sorcery to entomb them, flesh sorcery to drain them of their mana, and then consciousness sorcery to pry their minds open and get the answers I wanted. That would of course eliminate any possibility of us becoming allies, unless I altered their memories, but this whole fiasco was in full view of the quasi-settlement, simply not worth the risk. Turning my attention towards the gate that was put up way too fast, I saw that it was exactly as Tuki’s memories showed me, or a bit further along in construction. Runes larger than cars were being etched and filled in so that I could clearly see it from way over here, but at least it didn’t look ready.

“Hey!” I shouted, surprising the arguing mini-giants. “Reeanth Le’Talv! I know you know who that is, and she’s on her way here. She’ll be here in a couple days. I don't have time for this! My brother is here, I followed a tracking spell and god fucking damn it I ain’t leaving without him!”

The mediator started laughing as the other two drew their weapons. “Quit playing with the human, can’t you see he’s shaking with fear?”

My jaw dropped. The bastards understood me this whole damn time. The other two larger soldiers doubled over laughing as well.

“Stand down Reavers. It’s obvious he’s a native.” The non-shield wall soldiers straightened up after a minute and took off their helmets, wiping the tears of laughter from their eyes. All I wanted to do was flatten them, in this exact moment, or better yet, feed them to Spot. The one who didn’t point a weapon at me was a male, easily a foot taller than the rest of his soldiers and about as wide as a freaking bear. The other two were female, judging from their long hair, feminine bone structure and higher pitched voices. Try as I might, they just had too much armor on to see if there were female parts, yeah nope, they got hips.

“What’s your name, son? And how long have you been out here?”

Gritting my teeth, I answered slowly. “Nate, and too fucking long. Close as I can guess, probably anywhere from four to six months. You tend to lose track when you’re fighting for your life.”

The two females happy expressions vanished instantly. “You mean at least four years right?”

“Captain, it can’t be true?” The second female looked at the Captain and then back to her counterpart. “That would mean . . “

“Yes Corporal, it would mean exactly that.”

Spot’s quick singular bark cut them off. “Mean exactly what?” I questioned, trying to look each of them in the eye, “You know, for those of us who don’t know?”

At the Captain’s nod, the first female answered. “First, my name is Smith, Corporal Ashley Smith, and this is my bond-friend Corporal Ava Johnson. We were rescued from the tearing of the Veil four years ago.”

Corporal Johnson picked up where her friend left off. “We were told that time passed differently between the rest of the universe and here due to the introduction of magic into a zone that didn’t have any, but no one really knew how much. The overwhelming tide of it skewed every kind of reading, both scientific and magical that was possible.”

“And I am acting Captain Casparai, former United States Army Ranger, inducted into the grand army of the Alpha Centauri Empire. Formally, we are under the lost throne of Atlantis branch as that was the former capital of the Empire that we hope to recapture while we’re here.”

“So,” I sputtered, “You all are human, or, used to be? You’re huge, all of you! And how did you learn their language?”

“Modern alchemy and cool magitech,” Corporal Johnson answered, “In order for us to use magic and have a chance at returning home, we had to undergo alterations. The three of us chose to do so with a bit of frost giant blood, so now we’re much bigger and stronger than any normal Centauri and our inherent magic is deeper. And here.” She tossed a small necklace to me. “That is a universal translator. It’s a bit rough but it gets the job done. Over time, it will imprint the latest language in your brain and you won’t need it. See, we all have one.”

“You can come too if you want,” Corporal Smith offered while also showing off her translator. “They offered the enhancements for free if we agreed to join the military and scout out earth. Our orders are to restart civilization again and find the lost capital of Atlantis.”

It was all a little much. They were too friendly, even if they were telling the truth, which I just couldn’t believe.

“No, thank you, but I’m good. All I want to do is find my brother. His name is Andrew Jones, and he goes by Andy. He was twenty-one when this whole thing started, but that would make him twenty-four or twenty-five if time got all mixed up like you said. I have it on good information that he’s here.”

“I’m not sure we know anyone by that name,” Captain Casparai said slowly, “Most of the able bodied chose the genetic treatments and species alterations. The promise of a much longer life and fantastic abilities was too much for most to resist. It’s not just physical issues that these treatments fixed, but mental ones went away. So many former service members with post-traumatic stress disorder jumped at the chance for a ‘cure’.”

“I’m sorry, but I feel like you’re avoiding the question, or there’s something big you’re not telling me.”

Corporal Smith cut in with a pained smile. “What the good Captain means to say is that some cures and treatments had a contingency, and those usually were to join the frontline against the Hive. They’re a sort of insect based alien that . . “

“I already know about the Hive, and honestly, I have much bigger problems to deal with. I just want to know if you have a soldier or human or whatever kind of person here that used to go by the name of Andrew Jones. My name is Nathaniel Jones, but everyone called me Nate.”

“What do you mean you don’t care about the Hive?” Corporal Johnson gasped. “If you know about them, then you know they’re the biggest threat humanity as a whole is facing, and should be begging us to help fight them!”

“Do you think the Hive is a bigger threat than the Hungry Ones?” I asked innocently.

The relaxed posture of all the Centauri suddenly changed into a fearful kind of angry watchfulness. I could feel that every one of them was suddenly a lot more tense.

“I can take care of myself, genetic treatments or not, but you’re in for a huge surprise if all you’ve been told about are the Hive.” Finally putting my hands down, I knelt down next to Spot and scratched behind his ear. “I’ll tell you where they are if you let me see the faces of all of your soldiers here. I’ll be on my way if my brother isn’t here.”

“Sorry kid,” Captain Casparai replied, “We really can’t let you leave now, operational security and all that. But we can let you see if your family is here, it’s the least we can do. What kind of magic can you do anyway? I have to keep my men safe.”

“Ahem!”

“And women.”

Not stopping my steady scratching of Spot, I took a deep breath and thought about it. Letting them know that I was a sorcerer was definitely not an option, and I didn’t miss the overt threat either. With my dog here, the most believable option is what would keep me sufficiently under the radar.

“I’m a beast-tamer.”