“What path have you imagined, Candidate?”

“Music has the power to change the world. That was true in the old world and I will make it more so in the new. Every song will be a spell, I will give freely of my will and belief to the audience, and as they give that energy back to me, as a good audience does, it will be magnified and made manifest.”

Chapter 14

It was almost to the seven year mark….

How the time had flown by, spent in study and the throws of creative excess. Fields that stop or detect fast movement, Far sight, water purifying ‘pipes’, magic armor and all the original spells to boot. He even had dozens of half finished concepts just waiting for enough new information to finish.

His willpower had increased to the point that he was getting close to linking four runes together in one enchantment. He even learned to partially cheat. Finding ways to link multiple two or three rune spells together for greater effect. Such linked spells were not always safely usable by the guardians. Thankfully mistakes that should have been lethal were downgraded to ‘merely’ painful.

Merely. Fury rose in his veins at the very thought that the level of pain involved could exist with a word like ‘merely’! He shook it off.

Along with the many improvements had come a problem. To manifest a rune he resonated his will with the local magic field. Then carved the resonating rune into an object. He, in effect, was attaching it to the local field. So attached it could charge itself. The problem was it was only from that field. It was something he had no way to currently fix. There was not enough space in the little world for the effect to even be noticed, he only discovered it after asking Akil to demonstrate a few other environments. Akil’s demonstrations lacked both quantity and the transitions between environments. Maybe someday he could work out a universal resonance, but it was not going to happen any time soon.

In the meantime runes would only charge in the general area of where he made them. Once outside that area resonance was replaced by dissonance. Instead of charging it would start to damage the rune. Sure, the automatic charging could be disabled before the enchantment left its creation area. That worked just fine. It could only rely on its internal charge though, and would only be able to recharge when brought back to its start.

On the people side of things, multiple guardian groups had cycled through. Each staying for about a week in every four weeks. They would sit for lectures on how his magic worked then practice it by building fortresses, farms and homes. Then taking it up a notch they would have to defend what they made from beast waves and the occasional surprise attack made by a single beast. Oftentimes the latter was more of an issue than the former.

A single jaraptor or shadow snake could pick off a farmer in a fraction of a second. Anti-motion fields helped… if you kept them up. The current enchantment with a persistent rune required an influx of will every minute. For even a small farm plot that meant four wanders, one for each side, activating a triangular field that when placed correctly made a pyramid shape. Mindlessly activating it once a minute… It worked but was incredibly boring, mind rending job. It was a lot of mental work to activate a three rune spell not to mention the additional two rune enchantment to make it persistent. Doing it once a minute was like running a marathon with your mind.

The fun trick of the field was that it required Will whether there was motion or not. But it only required a magic charge when actively absorbing motion. Unfortunately this meant it wouldn’t work very well for a moving patrol. Too much motion all over the place.

“As much as it pains me to interrupt you when you are gloating, your attention is required Timothy.” Akil was in his usual out of place cheerful mood. “We are nearing the end of the tutorial and of our association.” He found himself surprisingly saddened by the thought. Apparently obnoxious cheer had grown on him.

That or Stockholm syndrome.

“Final preparations must be made. You and your entire people group, four pathfinders, 123 wanders, and 359 normals, will be transported to another slightly larger small world.”

“This world will be identical to the spot assigned to you on Earth. You may not bring any items besides one suit of default clothes from here but you will have two weeks to plan, organize and make whatever you need from the available resources once there. Whatever you can carry, you can take back to Earth. The first week is a benefit given to the magic users. The second, everybody. Then the training wheels come off and you humans are on your own.“

“Let me say that despite your frustrating tendency to miss the obvious it has been a pleasure. Your path has true potential and I wish you all the luck that may be in charting it as far as it will go.” Damn that cheerful voice! It completely ruins the moment…

“..haaa.. I will miss you as well Akil. Maybe someday I will make my own golem to nagg.. Uhmm.. remind me of things. Should I do so I would name him in your honor.” It came out a bit choked, but who was counting.

“..I appreciate the thought. You have a day to plan before the gates open. Spend it wisely.”

“Wowsh” The portal closed behind him. Leaving a dull roaring sound in its wake.

Finality.

Small tears made tracks down his cheeks.

Apparently seven years can turn a prison into a home.

Enough!

The world around him was ripe with colors. Towering trees lined two entire cardinal directions, wrapped in flowering vines and surrounded by dense underbrush. Deep green leaves, ferns and vines were propped up by sturdy browns and emphasized by violet, red and yellow flowers. The berries were a deep blue and were large enough to be visible from a stone throw away.

A small turn revealed a rushing river of massive proportions. It was several hundred yards wide and moving a decent clip. As it struck against a couple larger rocks he saw white water forming in the wake. This was the source of the low roar. Its banks were graced with chest high grasses and frequent boulders that were twice as high. A clearing spotted with similar boulders seemed to hold the trees back from the river while across it was another massive open plane bounded by hills that rose to become mountains. Mountains large enough that their peaks were hidden in the clouds. Clouds he called them, but mist might be a better term. It was quite low at the moment and made even the tree tops slightly hazy.

Wood, water, stone and cleared space. Wonderful!

The forest, as beautiful as it looked, was a death trap. No sight lines and plenty of places for ambushes. Ambushes by critters much faster than a human.

No.

The plains would be their home.

For a time at least. Who can predict what the future might hold.

He had overlooked them at first, taking in the sheer beauty of the scenery, but there were people dotted about the clearing as well. A hundred odd of them (probably 127 from Akil’s information) in their peasant and renfaire best. It was the smaller subset of four he had eyes for and they him. He rushed to Mama as did all the others. Two years without Jessey and Reginald. Two years without real conversation with Ma and Pa. He shook off the depressing thoughts, that was then, this was now. He hugged them with a savage hope mixed with fear, wishing that Jason and Merry could be here as well. Even that was not a fully happy thought. He had memories of failure, of being clawed, gored and eaten and he feared that the same would happen to those he held dear. He quietly sighed. He had to let it go. Some of them were together now. The rest would come in a week. Then he would have to make damn sure they remained that together.

Reginald, ever practical, started them off, “Alright Da, you have seen all our Paths. What do we need to do first?”

Timothy nodded at that, he had plans for himself, but that was a puzzle piece, Da had seen all the pieces and hopefully had an idea how they fit together.

Papa Joe nodded and gave a quick yell “Gareth come on over here, everyone else start forming squads like we discussed. Rick, your squad needs to rush for Timothy’s starting resources. Johnson, you have food, Sven and Arthur, your squads head out and have a look around. Find us a way to cross the river while you're at it.”

Acknowledgements echoed in as the disorganized gaggle formed into surprisingly military ish groupings. Groupings that immediately headed off in separate directions. All except one tall, long blonde haired man with the new england inbred slender thing going on. He jogged over to join the Masons.

“This is Gareth, our fourth pathfinder. Just the one name, like Cher.” Gareth winced at the comparison “Gareth these are my children.” He said with pardonable pride “Reginald my eldest, his younger sister Jessey and my second to youngest Timothy. I’ll give a quick overview for all of you, then my Timothy will have to leave us to get working. His tricks take the most setup time. I will get to it in a moment.”

“Gareth here is a musician, he casts spells with songs. If the song is a hit and his audience really likes it, they end up acting like magnifiers for the spell, and he will be damn useful to have around“

“Reginald’s” Regi winced again, and muttered ‘Regi’ under his breath “got a way to let all of us add our will and magic together. It’s impressive and lends itself to quick battle magics, lightning bolts, fire and protective winds. Apparently he has some fun large scale things he can do as well.”

“Jenney is a gardener. Nothing simple about it. She can grow plants faster than you can imagine and they don’t stay normal plants. Mixed and served as a soup she can make you stronger, faster, more alert and many more things we don’t have time to go over right now.” Jenney smiled through a wince, “It’s a cauldron Da, and it's not soup… nevermind. I also do a fair bit of healing. If I can find the plants for it.”

Joe smiled and moved on “Timothy…. Makes whatever comes into his head. At times brilliant… Anyway his magic will help us get a defensible settlement set up in a short amount of time… but it takes him a lot of setup time. Carving little pictures on sticks and rocks, then the sticks and rocks will dig ditches and turn dirt into solid walls.”

What does he mean at times Brilliant! Come on… He thought with narrowed eyes.

“Well sounds like I lucked out” Gareth said with a genuine smile, a very bright smile like someone left the high beams on. “How can I help? And please,” he brushed some imaginary dirt off his shoulder in a self deprecating manner, “Bard not musician.”

“Let me get Timothy setup first then we will get to that. Timothy, pick a boulder or whatever you want to use as a table and get started, Johnson and his squad should be back with some branches and a sharp rock or two shortly. “

He wanted to find out more. The only magic, by design, he had seen so far was his own (Akil’s didn't count). But he did only have a week to have things up and running. The guardians had organization well in hand but when the norms showed up…. He wanted weapons to be ready. You get farther with a kind word and a gun after all… How did a gun work again? The thought faded away.

There was so much more out there and he wanted to see it all…

With a practiced breath he re-asserted control. Desires were important, they provided the world with color. But discipline came first. He had a plan and it was time to start.

First was a rough Material-removal pen. A stick and a sharp rock provided that tool within 20 min. With only a sharp rock he had to be careful not to splinter the wood. Even with the extra care it was not exactly a work of art. It didn’t need to be. Just enough to make another better one. The next stick became a “Materia-Removal” with a larger flat cutting field about the size of a notebook page. Then a Joiner with a cubic foot scale.

A short two rune chain didn’t take that much out of him at this point. Still each one took time. Ten min of focused will, even for the simplest. It worked out like he had planned and practiced. The wood tools done early on were now charged enough to cut a small section of a boulder into his usual card stock. Card stock and one hexagonal stone pen, Properly engraved with its traditional name.

Seized with a need to release the solemnity of the occasion he held it in the propper Link fashion “Come old friend, we will prove once again that my ‘Pen-is-Mightier’!” He chuckled for a brief moment before looking around guiltily.

No audience, whew!

Time for Essence Light. Everything needed time to charge, but some took up far more charging then others. Each original “Concentrate direction” took up a considerable amount of magic per activation. Because it had to concentrate everything in the area. Light, air, scents, a pigeon...that was only the one time, honest…

Anyway ever since he moved up to three runes in a chain he had added the light rune to the mix. Only condensing light. It took far less of a charge. Then there was the original “absorb-store light” card. It had always needed a directional rune as well. The original had occasionally started fires from leaked Essence Light. Thankfully Akil had been around to put them out. They did not have a handy safety back up now. He had to patch up the cracks where ever possible.

The combo was pretty effective. Both enchantments could be sized to the same volume of air and if they were triggered together there was no leakage.

If.

That was hardly guaranteed when allowing for human error. So he didn’t allow for human error. Instead he made a chain of spells to do it for him. He started with a wooden block and carved two slots slightly bigger than a storage card in it. The first slot would hold the condense light enchantment while the second held the absorb light. Being a set distance apart it was not difficult to make the absorb field slightly bigger and there was no chance of leakage. Carved into the case itself was a new creation. “Persistent Connect”. It would activate both cards simultaneously and keep them activated for 5 minutes.

It wasn’t the most comfortable thing for most Guardians to activate. It pushed the edge of what they could do. But they could do it as long as they took a serious rest of about an hour in between activations. Any more often and they would be left with a nasty migraine or, if abused even farther, a burnt out mind.

Each different spell took a different amount of stored magic to work as well. The largest spender was the condense spell. It could only charge up enough to be used about ten times a day. Since each card held eight shots it didn't quite work out evenly. Still if he wanted fifty wands, with a full storage card each, in two weeks he would need three charge boxes up ASAP. He could create the storage cards later as needed. The river should provide the sand.

But building a fort was also needed. Shovels, joiners and concentrators. Just too many other calls on his time. So a narrow but wide area shovel and a pair of joiner cards first. He handed them off immediately to the foraging teams. The shovel would be used to harvest lumber while the joiners should be used first for storage bags. Much easier to collect resources when you had a sack to carry things in. He hoped to abuse the hell out of the all you could carry rule.

The first joiner took about 30 minutes to make and he needed a couple minutes to rest his mind afterwards. His mind needed rest not his hands so he quickly dug out a beehive shape from the surrounding dirt. It didn’t take very long with a material removal stick to get through the tough layer of grass roots.

But he didn’t have time to do all of this himself. He would need to do the delegation thing again… It always made him feel vaguely dirty, but needs must. Glancing around he quickly spotted Rick leaning against a boulder not 20 feet away. He walked over most of the way before speaking, “Heya Uncle Rick, did you get left out? I thought you were in charge of one of these” he vaguely pointed off in random directions, “groups.”

Uncle Rick just laughed “No, I am the coordinator. I took the first run for resources then passed it on to my second Gabriel. Each group that comes back here leaves any messages with me.”

He nodded, it made as much sense as anything else. At least Da and the others were on top of things. “Ok then, this is a bag mold” He pointed at the dirt mound, “I have a Joiner ready and plan to make a couple more. It will take a bit to charge but if you would have someone grab a bunch of fiber...those vines look useful... whatever you want to use go for it. I assume some bags would make gathering resources easier.” He waved the issue away, he had too much to do right now! Besides they had done this a time or two. He had to trust them. “Anyway I gotta get back to it. Good to see you happy, healthy and here Uncle.” He smiled, hoping to avoid the inevitable accusations of rudeness, but he really did not have time! The earlier he made some of these things the longer they would have to charge and the more total use they would be.

Striding back over, he started on the next Joiner. The first would be charged enough to use by the time they brought the fibers back. For a small area and acting only on a specific fiber type it was pretty cheap charge wise. Making two of them was to help with different tasks.

Breath deep and focus the will, no chalk available here, so it's free hand. Still, he had the practice at this point. It came together with no issues. The rest period afterwards was required if he wanted to be able to work the day though. Rushing would wear him out and end up with less done. Like sprinting at the start of a marathon. It would not decrease your time. He carefully set the finished tool down and started walking an ambling circle about his chosen boulder.

An ambling walk that was interrupted by his Uncle with a tall stone jug of water. Uncle Rick, the saint that he was, dug his own mold and created the water jug with the joiner. Filled with simple river water, it tasted divine…. and was unfiltered. He would have to make time for that as well, dammit!

Mass diarrhea would ruin everyone's day. “Uncle, can you start a fire with those branches? Boil the water in that pitcher and I’ll throw together a water filter.”

“Can do Timothy.”

“Do you need a hand getting a fire started?” Timothy asked, worried that it would take far more time then he had at first hoped.

“No, let me worry about the details, just keep going. I got this Timothy. ” With another smile he snapped his fingers and electricity arced between them. Timothy really wanted to ask, but his uncle had a point. Later, he promised himself, I’ll figure it out later.

It was a load off his shoulders. He had very competent back up. He just had to work ahead on his plans and trust that everyone else was doing the same.

The task ahead was not a difficult one. Prior planning and all that. He had this one already in the bag. Another 30 minutes carving away and he had a specific material removal device with a cap to place over the specific boxes. Filled with boiling water he then used the edge of the joiner to seal the cap into place. Instant water filter. He carved it into a four foot long stick to make it easier. One end in the river, the other over a jug. He had tested it long since in his little tutorial world.

Finished he handed it off to Rick and did another mind clearing, ambling lap. Slow and steady wins the race and all that. He took a deep breath and headed back to it. The shovel was next. With no specific rune, it was a much faster job. Just a wide flat cutting surface. Let it charge a bit then he would have plenty of smooth card shaped stones and the wood he would need for the next part.

He had thought it over many times and three laser charge boxes on the first day would do the trick… If he delayed to the second day it would require four. It would charge for over a day before it was full so he could make the storage cards tomorrow morning with no problem. But the condense runes would use the most magic charge. They had to be done first.

A drink of filtered, but still nicely cold water, and he started again. Thirty minutes each to carve three connected runes on a stone card. The five minute break between each of them was becoming more and more necessary. His head already ached a little bit. He recognized the signs. This was the ‘you are going to have a massive headache if you keep going’ sign. Not yet the ‘you are on the ragged edge of a mind burn out’. He could keep going. He MUST keep going.

Still he pulled it off. That was the most important part. The cards that required by far the most charge. Uncle Rick already had blocks of wood ready for him, pre carved and ready to be enchanted. It was always awesome to work with competent people! So after his self enforced break he started in on the boxes. Three boxes with only two runes on each. Twenty minuets each and far less strain on his mind. A good thing because his headache was pushing towards danger territory.

He could do no more, even though there was an immense amount of work to be done. “Dammit!” Freaking human limitations.

“About time you came up for air son, even if it's just in time for me to wash your mouth out.”

Jerking around he nearly fell over, bracing himself on his table bolder at the last second. Mama patty was sitting cross legged on top of a nearby bolder with a plate of… somethings and a familiar stone pitcher.

“Gurgle...gurgle..” Seeing the food triggered one of those autonomous human responses. He suddenly realized he had not eaten this side of the portal.

“Yes it's for you. No stay there, you look like you can barely see straight. Did you push too hard?” She carefully climbed down the sloped side of the boulder and walked over with the food platter. A mulish look in her eyes warned him about trying to brush it off.

“Thank you!” He grabbed a plum sized blueberry and shoved it into his mouth. Blue juice threatened to drip before his beard achieved its secondary function.

It was amazing. Take an incredibly strong blueberry taste and pump it full of vanilla protein shake..”wow”.

“Timothy John Mason, I am waiting on an answer. Did you push it too far?”

He sighed, “I pushed as far as was safe Mama. Trust me, I have pushed past this point thousands of times over the last seven years. I know to the last ache how far I can go. Yes my head is splitting, but I pay that price gladly, and daily!” Another small Sacrifice to build his willpower. He could have stopped a box earlier after all. It would have reduced the pounding pain to a mere light ache. He chose to push it that next little bit.

He winced a bit, grabbing an odd looking root from the plate, before continuing “Where is everybody?” a bite resulted in an immediate “hssth” and a grab for the water pitcher. The gnarled root was some kind of ginger analog. He manfully managed to chew and down the spicy instrument of horror, albeit with most of the pitcher of water, before looking at his mother with suspicion “was that necessary?”

“They are good for you… or so your sister claims. It should help with nausea and headaches. Considering what using magic does to you, I think you will have to acquire a taste for it.” Her explanation was logical but her eyes had a glint to them…

I am going to have to say that was on purpose!

Still he took another bite, albeit a smaller one and chased it with blueberry. He couldn’t feel any improvement yet. But if it worked it would be a godsend. Especially if Jenney could super size it with her magic later… Cooking down odd roots in a cauldron…

“Double double, toil and trouble” he muttered before a sharp look from Ma shut him up. She always could follow his thoughts better than most, and her catholic heritage clashed with Jenney’s wicca flower child what not. Hell, he was not even sure what the what not entailed. Jenney was a private person. Mama, though, probably did know.

And she did not like it.

A smart man does not attempt to interfere in a fight between two porcupines.

He let it go and moved on.

“I am about done in mama, do we have any sleeping arrangements?” His head really was doing an impression of a dirty rug with an enthusiastic cleaner pounding away. It wasn’t just a way to avoid this conversation.

Honest!

She took pity on him just this once “vine blankets are piled over there. No sense in building structures we can’t take with us. Just take one and settle down by your rock.” She suggested “The others will be back for the same thing soon enough.”

It was a good suggestion, so he took it.

“Night Mama.”

“Good night Son.”

As he drifted off a soft voice drifted on the wind “Dear star-lights, protect my sleeping babes. Burn clear and steadfast tonight.”