Summoner school 3, p.6
Summoner School 3, page 6
I looked around the square room for anything that could be a desk or a filing cabinet and saw something tucked into the far left corner. It was closer to the window and covered in debris, but there were a few pens and a pad of paper with what looked like equations. I walked a little closer and then grinned as I noticed a silver rectangle that couldn’t be anything other than a laptop.
“What is that?” Atlesia asked and pointed to the laptop.
“It’s a computer,” I said and pulled out a chair that was tucked beneath the desk.
The chair was made of the same silver steel that everything else in the lab was made out of, and there was a thin pad of leather with just a little stuffing. There were stains on the metal frame like something had burned it, and I groaned when I sat down on the hard surface. Charles definitely didn’t keep it for comfort, though I was giving serious consideration to the Ken doll being a robot after looking around the lab, so comfort wouldn’t be high on his priority list.
The desk had stray nuts and bolts everywhere and some small squares that looked like they were part of a motherboard. Charles said that he was an inventor, but I’d started to think that was just a cover, too. At least, until I’d come down into the lab and saw the arc reactor.
I cracked open the laptop and pressed the spacebar to see if there was any juice in it. The screen flickered to life, and I was shocked to see Stacy’s name plastered right above the password bar. The inventor wasn’t Charles, after all, but it was hard to believe that the Stepford wife was more than just a Barbie doll that was brought to life.
Of course, Barbie had more careers than any other doll on the market. I ran through every conversation with Charles and Stacy to see if there was any sign, but the Ken doll had been the one talking about inventions and his new machines. They might work together, but it looked like it was the Stepford wife whose writing was all over the notepad on the desk.
There was a yellow Post-it next to the laptop with a series of numbers and letters. The first few lines had been scratched out, so I typed in the last one and pressed the enter key and then held my breath. I almost let out a shout of joy when the login screen disappeared to reveal the main screen and a picture of my face.
“What the fuck?” I whispered and used the mousepad to scroll over it.
There were notes attached to the file with everything from my age to my weight, and even the exact time that I was born. They’d done a lot of research, and there were even comments from when I was a little kid. It was all the proof that I needed to know that the old couple that used to live in the house had been technomage spies.
“Do they have anything on me?” Atlesia asked and leaned over my shoulder.
“I don’t know,” I said and minimized the file about me.
There was one marked ‘hostile 1’, so I clicked on that and read through a description of Atlesia. It didn’t talk about her green skin or turquoise lips, so at least Charles and Stacy hadn’t seen her without the glamour. They had guessed that she was some sort of nymph, though, and there was a reference number to another file that I couldn’t find on the computer.
The technomages were definitely advanced, and I wondered just how many of them there were. It seemed my comment about the MIB wasn’t too far off the mark. Charles had said that his college buddies were spread out all over the world, and I would put money on it that all of them were technomages that were watching other mages and supernatural beings.
It was like I’d dropped into the middle of one of those crazy conspiracy podcasts about a shadow organization, except I was the victim in the story. The guys that had jumped us had been organized, and everything self-destructed after they left. They even had that crazy X-Men jet that disappeared like it was under an invisibility cloak.
“They don’t have a picture of me,” my girlfriend huffed. “Why do you get a picture and not me? I’m glorious.”
“Yes, yes you are,” I chuckled and brought her hand to my mouth for a quick kiss. “They just haven’t seen you in all of your glory. Which is good. They know that you’re a nymph, but not what kind. That’ll make it harder for them to attack you.”
“Do you think that they’ll come after us again?’ she asked as she picked up the notepad and studied the equations.
“Definitely,” I said. “Ira had said that they were fanatics, and grandma’s journals have mentioned them throughout the years. I don’t know why they’d come after us now when they’ve known about our family, but I’m betting it’s because I started going to Magia Schola.”
I clicked on a folder right in the middle of the main screen and it popped up with several video files that were marked by dates. The first one was almost twenty minutes long, but the ones after that were nearly an hour. I clicked on them and scrolled through to see the reactor.
Both Stacy and Charles were in the movies, but we didn’t have time to just watch them. The couple might be back any moment, and I didn’t want them to find us here, especially with the arc reactor right there and possibly ready to blow. I did listen to a couple of minutes and heard the Stepford wife mention something about electromagnetic fields.
“What is she talking about?” Atlesia asked. “That word is written here in her notes next to a bunch of equations.”
“Some machines give off an electromagnetic field,” I said. “I think that’s what they use in science fiction movies for things like pulse weapons and shields. Honestly, this kind of stuff wasn’t really my specialty. Give me a riddle or a puzzle any day. Mike will probably know more, and I can find some books about it.”
I exited out of the videos and scrolled through the folder until I found a Word document. There were more notes and equations, but at least some of it made more sense than the markings on the notepads and what was in the recordings. I read a paragraph about the electromagnetic fields around people, but it took me another read through before it actually made sense.
The paragraph made more sense when I thought of it like a shark hunting for fish. Stacy wrote something about how some people had stronger fields than others, and then she noted that she and Charles had higher fields than the average people that she had tested. There were also references to different test subjects from various locations and backgrounds who also had higher than average fields, and I realized that they were tracking magic users.
“Son of a bitch,” I said and then started to look around for a printer.
“What is it?” Atlesia asked and looked up from the notepad. “Did you find something important?”
“Yeah,” I said. “These people don’t think that they’re using magic. They think that it’s an electromagnetic field around people. I bet that’s what the arc reactor is for. They’re probably trying to enhance theirs, or maybe replicate it. Or channel limitless mana.”
I stood up and pulled a few papers off of the printer at the edge of the desk. It was covered in dust, but there were still some blank pages in the paper feeder, and the laptop said that there was ink. I printed all of the research notes in the folder and then looked at the notes that Atlesia had been going through.
“I don’t think that’s too far off,” the flower nymph said with a shrug. “The energy that she’s talking about here is given off in plants. It’s more subtle, but us nymphs can feel it naturally.”
“Interesting,” I said and took the notebook as she handed it to me. “Maybe they’re not too far off. I bet that’s how they manage to use magic and electricity together. We’ll go through these notes and compare them to grandma’s journals. It could lead to a breakthrough. And maybe some stronger spells.”
“That would be fantastic,” Atlesia said and bounced on her toes. “I would love to use some of the electric inventions that humans have. Those lamps that we passed in the city were wonderful. And I bet Mike’s mom would love to have a new kitchen.”
“I wouldn’t mind having one of those laser guns,” I said and then loaded some more paper into the printer. “Or one of those shield traps. Could you imagine how great the hunts would be if we could just trap one of the supernatural beings inside it and then fight it? And nobody else would be hurt.”
Excitement coursed through my veins as I thought about all of the possibilities. We could create a whole new world better than any science fiction or fantasy movie ever made. It would be the perfect blend, and if it was run on electromagnetic power, then it probably wouldn’t hurt the environment. Of course, the nymphs and tree-people would be able to tell us, and the magical high council would likely try to either squash it or take the credit for it.
“What’s that?” Atlesia asked as she pointed to the computer screen.
“It looks like a diagram for the electromagnetic field around different people,” I said and clicked on the notes attached to the picture.
A thirty second video was clipped to it, and my mouth went dry as I played the recording. There were people screaming and fire everywhere. It looked like a small village somewhere in a tropical rainforest, but it wasn’t the people, or the location, that made my heart try to beat out of my chest.
It was the shadow creatures that flitted across the video. I replayed the recording three more times just to make sure that I wasn’t hallucinating, but even Atlesia swore under her breath. She used a language that I didn’t understand, but there was no way to mistake the tone of her voice, especially since the exact same emotions were playing through me.
The village was completely consumed by the shadow creatures, and all of the pale blue mana that drifted from their bodies was quickly gobbled up. I didn’t realize that the hooded figure had already moved onto the human realm, but if they had, then it was only a matter of time before it got out into the mainstream media, and panic would follow. It wasn’t like the magical council could just come out and tell everyone what was happening, even if there were mages throughout the world to verify it, and then the world would plunge into chaos as everyone realized that magic was real and that humans weren’t the top of the food chain.
“Okay, okay, okay,” I said and ran my hands through my hair. “It looks like this is a pretty remote village of human mages. They might even be technomages. Or some of those subjects that Stacy referenced in her notes. If the fanatics haven’t killed them, then the people might not even realize that they’re using magic. And that presents a problem all on its own.”
“If the shadow creatures are in the human realm, then the hooded figure and the headmaster are further along with their plan than we thought,” Atlesia said as she gathered the printed pages. “We still don’t know enough about what their end goal is, but if they’re attacking the humans, then they must think that they can face the backlash if they’re caught.”
“They can just hide in the purgatory realm,” I said as I found an empty manilla folder to put the notes in.
I scrolled through Stacy’s notes about the video, and they confirmed all of my theories about the technomages. They assumed that the shadow creatures were stealing the electromagnetic fields from humans and trying to find people that had more. I wondered how they differentiated between magic and the supposed field, but that was a problem for another day.
First, I needed to make copies of the notepad for Mike. The tree-man would be able to explain everything a little better, and there were bound to be books in the library that talked about it, especially since Atlesia said that plants have the same energy. It might not be as in-depth as the technomages’ notes, but it would at least be an introductory course for me, and Ira was bound to have something in her office.
A door shut somewhere upstairs, and my stomach dropped to my ass. I glanced at the steel door and expected it to burst inwards as a dozen more of the neoprene-wearing weirdos leapt through, no doubt all armed to the teeth, but the sound of footsteps were closer to the front of the house. It was enough to give us time to escape, though I had no idea how we would get out of the basement without leaving obvious signs that we’d been there.
“I’ll give you a boost out of the window,” I told Atlesia and started to cover the printer with the papers again. “And once you’re up, I want you to take the file and get back to the house. You’ll be safe once you’re past the barrier.”
“But what about you?” the flower nymph asked as she helped me to clutter up the desk where we’d both straightened it.
“I’ll figure it out,” I said with a reassuring smile. “I don’t want them to get their hands on you. These two aren’t like the agents that came after us earlier. They’re scientists and inventors. If they can, then they’ll try to figure out how your magic works, and that’ll literally be through torture.”
“And what’s going to stop them from doing that to you?” my girlfriend huffed and put her hands on her hips.
“Nothing,” I said and led her toward the small window.
The heat from the arc reactor seemed to be getting worse with every second, or it could just have been the adrenaline racing through my veins. Cold air and snow flurries drifted from the open window, and I had to fight the urge to close my eyes and revel in the chilly breeze. It was a welcome break from the sauna that was the basement, and even Atlesia seemed to perk up a little.
“Put your foot in my hands,” I said and cupped my hands together.
“Fine,” she said and then did as I said. “But you’re coming up right after me. Or I’ll come back down, and we’ll fight them together. And don’t even think about telling me to save myself, or I’ll strangle you with my vines.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I chuckled and then hoisted her into the air.
The petite woman latched onto the edge of the window frame and shimmied through the opening while I helped to keep her steady. A sigh of relief blew through my lips when the flower nymph was safely outside, but I knew that she’d be true to her word and wouldn’t leave without me.
“Here’s the file,” I said as I rushed over to the desk and brought it over. “No matter what happens, we need to make sure that this gets to Mike. He’ll be able to understand all of the equations.”
“You’re talking like you’re not going to make it,” my girlfriend huffed and took the folder. “I have an idea.”
Footsteps sounded on the floor above me, and I glanced over at the door to make sure that no one was about to come through. The keypad was still a bright red, but that could change at any second. I could use the chair to lift myself up before someone came down to check on the arc reactor, but then they’d know for a fact that we’d been inside the house.
“I’m all ears,” I said and pulled my attention back to my girlfriend.
The flower nymph had taken out one of her vine seeds and planted it in the frozen ground. It wasn’t nearly as deep as it should be to hold my weight, but the plant had been infused with Atlesia’s magic and could grow anywhere. I just hoped that the roots held on long enough for me to climb up.
“I can retract the vine once you’ve climbed up,” she said as the rope-like plant hung through the window.
“I feel like the prince in Rapunzel’s fairy tale,” I muttered and started to climb.
The plant creaked as I used it like a rope, but it didn’t break, and soon I’d grabbed the edge of the window frame. It took all of my strength to lift myself up, but all of the fighting in the battle magic program paid off, and I managed to scoot through onto the cold, wet ground. My muscles would be sore in the morning, but we’d made it out of the basement, and Atlesia recalled the vine right as the keypad beeped.
I rolled over to see the door to the basement swing open. Stacy walked in on high heels that clacked across the cement floor. I held my breath as she looked around with a suspicious look on her face, but a moment later the Stepford wife shrugged and then went to check on the arc reactor.
“Let’s get out of here,” I whispered to Atlesia.
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” she said and offered a hand to help me up.
We snuck along the edge of the house so that no one would be able to see us if they looked out of the window. Charles’ car was parked in the driveway, and I smiled as we snuck closer to it. We could use it as a shield just in case the Ken doll was in the dining room.
“We have to eliminate the threat, Charles,” a man’s voice said, and I recognized it as the leader from earlier.
“He’s a valuable asset,” Charles sighed. “We could test our theories on him and the hostile.”
“And you’ll be able to watch them bleed, Joe,” Stacy said as she emerged from the basement. “And I know how you love vengeance.”
“You make a valid point,” Joe said in a thoughtful tone. “I suppose we could allow it. But you’ll have to keep them caged.”
I glanced over at Atlesia as a shiver ran down my spine.
Well, at least they didn’t want to kill us anymore.
Chapter 5
“We can have cages made for them by tomorrow afternoon,” Stacy said in a pleased tone.
“I won’t be caged,” Atlesia whispered. “Plants do not belong in cages. We must be allowed to grow freely.”
I reached over and laced my fingers through hers. The idea of being in a cage wasn’t ideal for me, either, and I’d seen enough movies to know what kind of experiments that scientists liked to perform on test subjects. There was no way that I would let that happen to Atlesia, and that started with getting to the house without anyone in the kitchen noticing us.
“We just need to get past the barriers,” I said in her ear. “As soon as we’re past the white picket fence we’ll be in the clear. They won’t be able to attack us with those guns since they’re etched with spells, and they’re mages whether they want--”
“We didn’t get the amulet,” Joe said. “That traitor to the human race was better prepared than expected.”
“You mean that you were bested by a child,” Charles sneered. “I’ve talked to that kid more than once, and he’s not exactly a trained warrior.”
“He’d kick your ass, Charles,” the other man snapped.
The men started to bicker while Stacy and the woman from earlier tried to calm them down. It sounded like they’d had this argument before and that it would last long enough for Atlesia and I to make it across the street. Their voices carried through the chilly night air as we snuck down the driveway with the Corolla between us and the house.
