As we exited the school and headed up the road, I spoke softly to Nick. “Sorry I gave away two of your horses. I’ll pay you back.”

He snorted. “As long as I get to see Sylvia walk to the farm, we’ll call it even.”

“She’s really not all that bad,” I said, “She’s just…”

“Quit defending her,” Nick snapped, interrupting me. His face was flushed with anger. Kicking the horse, he trotted ahead of the group to be alone with his thoughts.

I try to see the good in people. Sylvia was a shitty mother. But, I believe, a good person. Mostly. I’ll let Nick deal with his thoughts. He’s old enough to remember the arguments and entitled to his own opinion.

A couple miles later we turned east onto Interstate-12 before I called for a stop and dismounted, motioning for everyone to come in for a huddle. Sylvia, Tony, Bob and the dozen other pilgrims had kept up with no problems so far. We were travelling a bit slower than I would have liked, but we should hit Simm’s Creek and the Bethel church before nightfall.

“Okay, gather ‘round,” I said, calling everyone together. “We need to do a little Sun-Tzu before we go any further.”

“I was wondering when you were going to do that,” Thom said, looking at his brothers. “Know yourself, know your enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.”

“Exactly,” I said, giving my middle son a thumbs-up. “So let’s find out what we’re capable of and the enemies we know. First off, I have some bonded companions. Sparky and Miguel.”

The horses danced a bit with a little mental encouragement and gave a small bow.

“I saw that,” Doug said, his voice filled with wonder. “I saw the link between you.”

“We share a mental bond,” I said. “And I have another companion. Don’t panic, understand? Get a good grip on the other horses.”

The group shuffled nervously as I met each of their eyes.

“Okay, here she is. Everyone welcome Sassy.” I twitched our bond and Sassy appeared next to my leg, causing the unbonded horses to shy away, rolling their eyes in panic. A few minutes were lost to soothing the animals while Sassy and I waited. “She’s a cat who can teleport,” I said when things calmed down.

“That’s a 300 pound black panther...hawk…thing,” Nick said, his aura shifting yellow and bright orange.

“She’s a bit chonky,” I admitted, giving her head a good scritch. “And quite a bit bigger than when we first met, but she’s a good girl.”

“KITTY!” Astrid yelled, leaping forward to wrap Sassy in a hug.

“G’grrl!” Sassy chirped, raising her tail like a flag under Astrid’s sudden affections. “S’ssy l’ke scrrtch.”

“And she talks. Sort of.” I continued. “I can manipulate my aura. Move things or even myself with it. I can see motes around us that I call mana and auras around people that indicate their emotion. I can heal people and I get the impression I can do more if I have the time to practise.”

“I’m really fast,” Thom said, burning mana and blurring a dozen feet away before returning just as quickly. “And… that’s about it.”

“I’m going to hold off with the jokes for now,” I grinned.

“Thanks Dad,” he deadpanned. “I knew I could depend on you.”

“One hundred percent,” I replied. “You’ll be training with Astrid as soon as possible.”

Nick stepped forward, his earlier anger forgotten or at least buried. “I have an affinity for earth,” He said, feeding motes into his core and raising small spikes from the ground. “If it came from the earth, I can bend it.”

“Sweet. Can you separate different elements?” I asked.

“Yes,” He replied without hesitation.

“What about this?” I said, pulling a tangle of jewellery from one of Sparky’s saddlebags.

“What do you want?” He asked, examining the loot I had claimed from Elemental Mike.

“Gold, silver, and whatever’s left over,” I answered.

His lips pursed in concentration as motes flowed around his hands and into the jewellery. It melted into a blob and began spinning, threads of gold, silver, and a couple other alloy materials separating and forming individual blobs which flattened to become small bars and discs of purified material. “How’s that?” He said, handing the metal back to me.

“Very useful,” I replied, tossing the purified metal into the saddlebags. “How far can you levitate things?”

“Not far,” He admitted. “But I can huck things pretty hard.” A small rock floated up from the ground, then shot off to impact a nearby road sign, leaving behind a sizeable dent as it fragmented into a thousand pieces of shrapnel.

“Nice,” I said, clicking my tongue in appreciation. Imitating him with my aura, I launched a rock at the same sign. My result wasn’t nearly as impressive. “I think you have the advantage.”

“What about you Doug,” I asked, looking at my lanky youngest son. I had a pretty good idea it was some form of mental domination.

“I can make people do whatever I want,” He answered in a soft voice, looking down at the ground.

“Anyone? Or just the non-gifted?”

“Anyone, I think. Animals and the uh, non-gifted are easier.”

“We’ll have some practice this evening and see what your limits are,” I said, suppressing a shudder. The ability to mentally control someone was horrifying to me.

“Sure.”

“Astrid?” I asked, drawing her attention away from Sassy.

“Yeah? Oh!” She blushed, suddenly self conscious that she’d been frolicking with Sassy in front of strangers. “I can summon things if I have their stone, like my raven Joey.”

“Is your raven sapient?” I asked.

“Not really,” She responded. “He’s more like a robot with memories, I think? He can fly and remember all sorts of raven stuff, but he doesn’t seem to be self aware.”

“Ah. That’s good to know,” I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a handful of stones. I selected a certain red one and handed it to her. “Can you use this one?”

She took it from my fingers and examined it with a critical eye. “This is weird,” she said, rolling the core around in her fingers. “I’m not sure what it is, but it’s going to need a lot of power. Do you want me to channel through the core, or sacrifice it?”

“What’s the difference?” I asked.

“If I channel, I can reuse the core as long as I have the power to activate it. If I sacrifice the core, it’s consumed,” She bounced the stone in her palm, mentally inspecting it. “This one would last maybe five minutes if I sacrificed it.”

“Keep it if you can,” I replied. “It may prove useful in the future.”

I watched as a silvery thread darted from her core into the stone, and then the thin accretion disk in her head stirred to life, feeding it motes. The stone glowed briefly, silver motes swirling and twisting in geometric patterns as she fed power to it. Clasping the core tight in her fist, she pointed a finger and the motes flowed out like a liquid to splatter on the ground.

A humanoid shape rose and took form. Dressed in blue jeans with an oversized ‘Hunt, Fish, Fowl’ tee-shirt, it looked at Astrid and gave a small bow.

“What…who is that?” She whispered, staring at the unshaven summon standing before her.

“That’s Elemental Mike,” I said. “He tried to kill me, but he obviously didn’t succeed. He had some sort of ability to create fire.”

“I can feel that,” Astrid said, burning more of her mana. Mike lifted a hand, creating a small flame on his palm.

“You should probably banish him or whatever,” I said, watching motes spin into her core like bath water down a drain. “You’re really low.”

Elemental Mike burst into a billion silver motes and flowed back into Astrid’s fist.

“T-this was a person?” She said, looking at the core in her palm. “A real person?”

“A murdering rapist,” I answered. “Was it self-aware?”

She shook her head violently. “No. It was an empty shell waiting for orders, just like Joey.”

“Good,” I nodded. “Use it to grow stronger.”

“Sylvia,” I said, looking at my ex-wife. “What about you?

“You killed him,” Sylvia muttered, just loud enough for her voice to carry. “You killed him and you’re happy about it.”

“Damn skippy I am,” I snapped. “I’ve killed several people to get here. What are your powers?”

The silence around us stretched, the crowd shuffling uncomfortably.

“I feel things,” she admitted, each word like a tooth pulled from her mouth.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I can sense how other people are feeling,” she snapped. “I know when people are happy, sad, hurt, or whatever.”

“What’s your range?” I probed. “Can you tell if someone is telling the truth? Can you sense animals?”

She shook her head, coppery curls bouncing with the action. “I can tell when someone is hiding something, and yes, I can sense animals. There’s a rabbit over by that tree. That’s about my limit. ”

The tree in question was about a hundred feet away. Thirty-ish metres for our European friends. That’s a fair distance and should give plenty of warning for ambushes.

“I still love you,” I declared, looking her in the eyes.

“That’s…a lie.” She mumbled, just loud enough to hear.

No, it wasn’t. Not exactly. There’s a difference between love and like. I still loved Sylvia. The idea of Sylvia. But I didn’t like her as a person. There was a lot of hurt there, a thick scab covering past wounds that I was not going to pick at. Ever. But I still loved the Sylvia that I had met so many years ago.

“Good enough,” I said. “We’ll need you to keep an eye out for any hostiles in your range, so you’ll move to the rear. I can sense a bit farther than you, but you’ve got the important job of double checking everything - never assume that I can sense something you don’t, okay?”

She nodded, her face flushed with anger and embarrassment.

“Paige?” I said, addressing Doug’s lover. “What about you?”

The tall woman was flustered for a moment before recovering. “I can make videos!” She declared, creating a life-size replica of Sassy.

The replica rolled on the ground doing its best to look like a cute ball of danger-fluff. Sassy moved over to investigate, sniffing at the clone and testing it with her tentacles.

“That’s incredible,” I said. “Is that an external illusion, or are you affecting our minds?”

Paige frowned in concentration. “I’m not sure?” She admitted. “I think I’m making people see what I want them to see?”

I hardened my aura, focusing on creating an impervious shell that nothing could get through. The clone Sassy flickered and vanished.

“You’re definitely influencing what people see,” I replied, straining to see if any silver threads had emerged from her core. There were none. Maybe she was using her aura? “We’ll need to see what your range and limits are.”

“Okay!” She smiled, linking Doug’s arm in hers.

I looked at my daughter’s Um-Friend. “Kristina?” I said. “What about you?”

“I’m not really sure,” she said, dropping her eyes. “I see ghosts.”

“That sounds really interesting,” I said, encouraging her to elaborate. “Can you talk with them?”

“They don’t make sense,” She admitted. “They want food. They beg for it, and I… I ignore them.”

“Have you tried feeding them your mana?” I asked on a whim. I had a feeling that her gift was similar to Astrid’s. “Just make sure you tell them that they have to obey you if they want to be fed.”

Her eyes unfocused and her tiny spark flared as it burned mana. A silvery pattern appeared on the ground in front of her, and after a long minute, a silvery wolf appeared and rolled over to show its belly. [1]

Well, I didn’t expect that.

“Looks like you have a new friend,” I said.

Kristina eased forward until she could could run her fingers through the thick fur of the wolf. After a moment, it rolled to its feet and she grasped it into a hug. Astrid joined a moment later, tackling it with fingers full of scritchies.

“His name is ‘Moonlight on the river’ Kristina said a few moments later.

I could see a silvery thread joining the two together. Her core was burning mana at an accelerated pace, but I guesstimated that she was inhaling enough to replenish it. Maybe a bit less. She really needed to form an accretion disk so the could process all the other colours of mana she was breathing in.

Moonlight on the River was a huge choking wolf, four foot tall and bigger than Sassy.

“Send Moonie out to scout and hunt,” I suggested. “Maybe it won’t be such a drain if he can find his own source of mana?”

The wolf darted ahead of us and vanished into the waist-high new growth of trees and brush that had sprung up around the interstate. [2]

“So, is Moonie self-aware?” I asked Kristina.

“He’s a real wolf,” She breathed in wonder. “I can feel what it’s like to be a wolf, to be part of a pack, to…” she shuddered. “I’m scared that I’ll lose myself if I go any deeper.”

“If you ever have any doubts, banish him,” I said, making sure that my voice left no room for doubt. “You can do that, right?”

Kristina nodded. “I can send him away.”

“Just as long as you can control him,” I said.

She nodded, distracted. “We share a… life? an awareness? He knows that if I cut the bond he is banished back to where he came from.” She looked at me, brown eyes open wide. “It’s slavery,” she whispered. “He’ll do anything for me as long and I keep feeding him. He’s terrified of vanishing, of dissolving into nothing or being eaten by something in that other place.”

“We’ll figure it out later,” I promised her. “Right now, he’s useful and we need every advantage we can get.

Astrid wrapped her arms around Kristina, drawing her in tight. I stepped back and let them have their space.

There were about a dozen pilgrims that had joined our little caravan. The majority were adults with heart stones of various colours and a few children with unfocused cores. I approached a parent who had a child with an unfocused violet spirit stone.

“I’m Emmett Carter,” I said, offering the woman a soft smile. She had an orange heart stone glowing in her chest. “What made you decide to travel with us?”

“Wendy Greene,” She said, offering her hand before clasping both of them before her in a nervous fidget. “I didn’t feel safe back there. It’s, um, hard to explain. When I heard that Chris was leaving, I knew I needed to go too.”

“Your son has a cloud of violet mana in their head,” I said. “It’s not condensed yet, but I think he’ll be Gifted. Do you have any skills?”

She shook her head. “I was a manager at a Major Dollar store.”

“So you know how to organise a schedule and keep people on task?” I asked.

“Well, yeah, I suppose.”

“Then you’ll be perfect for making sure that things are covered while we rebuild.”

Wendy grimaced. “I quit a couple of weeks ago because I couldn’t deal with the stress,” she admitted. “People have lives, you know? They’re more than just numbers on a sheet.”

“You’re hired,” I smiled. “People over Profit. The community comes first, not the bottom line of some corporation.”

She gave me a small smile. “So what’s the pay?”

“Oh my god!” I exclaimed, staggering around like I was shot by an arrow. “I think I love you.”

She looked at the spectacle I was creating with wide eyes.

“I have no idea what it pays,” I said, looking around at everyone gathered. “Money means nothing right now. You want dollars, I’ll bust open a bank and give you a million pieces of worthless paper. But until we find something that’s good for trade, all I can offer is protection and shelter.”

“What about food and healthcare?” Wendy asked.

“Food is gonna be scarce for awhile,” I admitted. “But I’ve got the healthcare covered. Anyone that needs healing will be healed, no charge.”

“Protection, Shelter, and Healthcare?” She asked, driving the point home.

“And food when available,” I said. “Things are stupid right now, so I can’t promise three meals a day. But once everything gets settled, I believe people have an absolute right to food, shelter, healthcare, and protection. I don’t ever want to see anyone homeless, hungry, sick, or abused.”

Wendy nodded in agreement and offered her hand. I clasped it in mine and moved down the line. Fourteen heartstone adults, five children, including Wendy and her son Alan. Most of them had followed my sons from Baton Rouge and felt safer with them than with the survivors in Albany. One of the men was really close to condensing a disk around his heart stone, so I gave him some pointers that might help.

Reorganising the line, I sent Sassy out to scout the area. Moonie was hunting or something. I’d depend on Kristina to keep us informed. Nick and I took the lead, Astrid, Thom, Kristina, and Doug were in the centre with the other pilgrims, Sylvia and Paige at the rear to keep an eye for anything that we may have missed. Infusing Astrid with some of my golden motes, she summoned Joey and had him scouting from overhead.

“It’s about 20 miles to Bethel,” I said, addressing the group after I mounted. “That’s six hours. We’ll take a break every once in awhile and should arrive by nightfall. I have friends there, it’s a safe place to shelter. Make sure to keep up. If you need help, don’t hesitate to ask.”

We travelled straight down I-12 for two hours, passing through the ruins of Hammond. There was nothing around us for miles except collapsing buildings and burnt desolation. The group grew somber as we passed through the area, I could feel their emotions every time I pinged. Disbelief, Sadness, Loss.

A group of Leaping Arseholes attacked as we passed I-55, but they were quickly dispatched by the concentrated firepower of a half dozen Gifted. It was a total massacre, leaving behind nothing but bleeding corpses. We fed the corpses to Sassy and Moonie after I strictly forbid Astrid and Kristina from ever summoning a Leaping Arsehole. Watching as the mana stones dissolved into the beasts, a feeling of satisfaction filled my soul.

Three hours later, we turned south on LA-445 and headed towards Bethel church. I flashed my spark a few times along the way, hoping to catch the attention of Nicole and causing everyone else to complain.

“Seriously, old man,” Nick complained next to me. “You have no idea how bright that thing is.”

“Is it really that bright?” I asked.

“It’s hard to explain,” Nick said, scanning the woods on his side of the road. “It’s like an air-raid siren. I can hear it in my head, even if I’m not looking at you. It’s worse if I have to see the damn thing. Fuck, even the non-gifted flinch when you do it.”

“Oi, language,” I said.

“I’m almost thirty years old,” Nick complained. “I’m allowed to say damn, shit, fuck, and cunt if I want to.”

“You okay with me turning off the profanity filter when I’m around your kids?” I asked.

He chewed on that. “Okay, maybe I see your point,” He admitted after a moment. “But we’re a couple of adults, right?”

“Damn right we are, you mingy cunt,” I grinned. “You drink whiskey?”

“I’m more of a craft beer sort of guy,” Nick said. “You smoke?”

“Weed?” I asked, looking at him. “Before I had kids. Gave it up when I became a parent to a horde of money-eating monsters.”

He smiled and pulled a blunt out of his pocket. Striking a zippo lighter a dozen times before it flashed to life, it burned with an unnatural green flame. Inhaling deeply, he nudged his horse over and passed me the joint.

I grabbed it and took a hit, letting the sweet smoke settle in my lungs before passing it back. Autumn nudged her horse between ours. “Pass the dutchie, estupido” she said, slapping Nick on the shoulder.

He took another drag from the joint and passed it to her.

My psychic vision flickered, the ever present motes shuddering into streams and rivers that twisted and flowed into the aura overhead. I watched as the motes danced and joined the ocean of mana in the sky,

“Holy. Shit.” I gasped.

“You high, old man?” Nick asked, laughing.

“Yeah. Have you seen the moon?”

We stopped in the middle of the decaying asphalt road to gape at the moon. It was larger. I wasn’t sure if it was just an optical illusion, but the colours staining the grey surface wasn’t. Vibrant greens and blues streaked across the familiar grey surface, drawing our attention.

The others arrived a few moments later, gathering around as we gawked at our orbital companion.

Astrid was the first to speak. “That’s not normal,” She said, once she had determined what we were looking at. “What the fuck?”

“Language!” Nick and I said simultaneously, then laughed. I leaned over to poke Autum on the shoulder. “Dutchie?”

“What do you think, Astrid?” I asked, straightening up to stare at the moon over head.

“I have no idea,” She said. “I know the astronauts left 100 bags of poop on the moon, so maybe the aurora somehow revived it or something?”

Autumn leaned over to pass the joint. Plucking it from between her fingers, I took a hit and passed it back.

“Are you smoking weed?” Astrid demanded, watching our interaction. “I want some.”

“Maybe,” I said. “You can smoke, drink, and get tattoos when you’re twenty.”

“We’re literally in the middle of an apocalypse,” she pouted. “Totally unfair. Besides, shouldn’t you be sober?”

“You’re probably right,” I said, watching the mana swirl in patterns that nearly made sense. “But we’re just a couple of miles from the others so…”

“So nothing,” She said, pissed at my parenting. Wheeling Miguel around she headed back to the middle of the group. “Get your shit together old man.”

I looked over at Nick struggling to suppress his laughter.

“I can’t wait until you have kids,” I threatened with an evil smile.

1. Gifted Spiritualists do not need to worry about a misconfigured manifestation. They can sense and bargain with spirits psychically, offer contracts and bindings, and provide mana for the spirit to manifest. They can, however, make bargains that are detrimental to them.

2. Spirits can be summoned from the etherial realm into the material. They need mana to remain in the material realm. That mana can be provided by their summoner or can come from other sources. The Spiritualist can control the flow of Mana collected from other sources, using it to increase themselves or the strength of the spirit. Note: Once the link to the spiritualist is cut, the spirit is banished back to the etherial realm. The spirit will do anything in its power to protect the spiritualist and prevent this from happening.

Copyright © 2022, Conteur. All Rights Reserved.

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