Chapter 8

I've read stories where alternative Earths have very different histories stemming from a different decision being made. There's an old saying about 'for want of a nail' describing what some call the butterfly effect. However, for all Mages know of a lot of different Earths, none of them has stemmed from an alternative history. They were settled by men and women taken there by the Sidhe. We suspect that the higher powers or perhaps God himself has blocked us from such alternative histories in order that we do not meet ourselves. Well, that's one explanation anyway, again anyone asking questions the higher powers or even common or garden angels and demons do not like, ends up dead on the spot, so mostly we don't ask, we surmise. On this Earth over a period of centuries a massive eastern empire had arisen occupying what on my Earth would be called the fertile crescent, Anatolia and much of central Europe. It had managed to beat back invasions from various barbarian realms and smaller rivals to survive to this very day, though it was no longer ruled over by a single emperor. It had led the way in a scientific age and it was the elites of this Empire who became the Over-masters, using technology in physics, chemistry and bio-engineering to dominate and keep in thrall all those underneath them. There was no world-wide empire as such, simply a host of competing Over-masters using their resources to try and take over and undermine those next to them. Though they would unite when an area or people revolted to try and escape their abuses. So in this strange place, there was no England, but a country called Loegria, which comprised of most of my England and Wales though only as far North as the Solway Firth in the West and the river Coquet in the East. Above that was the land of Albany and for some reason Ireland was called Scoterra. Both were Over-master strongholds and biotech soldier producers. Loegria itself had been a major supplier of electronics, though very restive of the subtle controls used to keep the population in check until finally it had revolted, only to be brought down and kept down in reprisal and as a warning to others. Some of the names were vaguely familiar, but this is quite normal. There seems to be almost a human group mind at work at times where the names and legends from other worlds are written about in ours and other worlds in the form of tribal legends and mythological legends and hearsay. Also, oddly I couldn't detect any traces of the Sidhe either, they would still be dominant here if there was no human magic.

"I'm surprised another Over-master hasn't tried to claim this land," I said.

"It will happen one day," said Ketty. "Though at the moment I think they still fear us."

"So who controls the ground bosses?" I asked.

"The Over-masters of Scoterra, Albany and Keltogalla, at least until one of them believes himself to be strong enough to grab this land for himself," said Dorry.

"Right," I said. "I'm going to try and contact someone who may or may not help you, problem is I'm not in their good books and I'm not supposed to be using magic at the moment. Still, I have to try."

I rooted around in Terome's cupboards until I found something that looked like a magic marker but wrote like a pen and started drawing various sigils and glyphs on the wall to aid my focus in contacting Morgana.

"Are you writing a spell?" asked Dorry.

"Sort of," I said. "The symbols help me focus my mind in a specific way, they don't actually mean anything. The ones which look like pictures we call glyphs, the random shapes are called sigils, but they serve the same purpose."

"OK," she said with a smile. "Can anyone do it?"

"No, not really," I said. "Normal people only use about ten percent of their brain, those of us who can do what we call magic use the other ninety percent too. I'm surprised there are no magic users on your Earth, other than an odd frequency to your brain patterns you're as human as I am."

I then focussed on the symbols, pictured Morgana in my head and reached out and out and out. Nothing, no sign of anyone human, never mind using magic on the various empty worlds my scan looked over.

I sat down on the bed to think whilst Ketty and Dorry hovered nervously nearby.

"I may have a problem here," I finally said.

"Can you not speak to your people?" asked Ketty.

"No, I can't," I sighed. "I'm not sure even where they are."

I went back over my lessons in communications across worlds from Morgana. Moving from world to world was straightforward enough, communication wasn't, each world had its individual signature and that signature could mask an individual or prevent any form of communication. The more I thought about it though the more worried I got, as far as I was aware there weren't that many worlds with human civilisations on them and this did not match any of those. Besides, those worlds all had flourishing magical user bases on them and had accords with my Council of the Wise. What was clear though was that I'd first need to identify an occupied world I knew though without a mass of humanity upon it in order to know the direction I'd need to focus my thoughts in, as a general cry for communication wasn't working.

Closing my eyes I decided to search out the home of the Sidhe as it was the most familiar to me from an earlier visit. It took a long time, but finally I found it. Normally I see a series of worlds stretched out in front of me a bit like one of those card indexing systems and I could flip from one to the next to gain access to the world involved. This was different though, it was like catching a glimpse of something in the corner of your eye, the more you tried to see it the harder it got. Finally I did it though and fixed it in my mind's eye. Then once I had it locked I focussed on the symbols I'd scrawled down earlier looking for Morgana. It was very hard work as my mind resolutely rebelled against the direction I was forcing it to take and the whole process felt very unnatural, though finally and very vaguely I caught a hint of Morgana, just a hint but enough to refocus my efforts.

"Mage Morgana?" I broadcast.

"John? My God John, where the hell are you, I've had the Department on high alert when you dropped off my mental track," she sent back. "Which should not have been possible, not even for a member of the Council."

I explained what had happened and where I thought I was, though admittedly at the time I wasn't any too sure. I also apologised for using my powers when under Official Disapproval.

"Never mind that," Morgana sent. "I was about to bring you back anyway, both Arch and Róisín have been on at me for days because they felt I had dealt with you too harshly. However the rules are there for a very good reason and I have to treat you the same as anyone else. Not that it stopped Rowenna from sending me requests to interview you on a daily basis either come to that. Why, when it comes to trouble, do you always manage to do it in such a way as to cause consternation to the Council?"

I didn't answer that one as I could almost feel her smiling when she sent it.

"Can you get to me?" I finally asked. "Only there are some people here who might need our help."

"We don't normally interfere in the affairs of mundanes John, you know that," Morgana stated.

"Not even on worlds where no Mages exist and who plan to use a portal system to invade other worlds?" I asked.

There was a very long pause.

"No Mages? As in none at all?" she asked.

"I can't detect any magic use at all and I thought that was supposed to be impossible. Even worlds where humanity does not exist have their magical sources deep under the Earth, it's one of the effects of quantum entanglement where a spell cast on one world can have an effect on another, or at least be detected."

"Why are you telling me something I already know?" Morgana sent back with what I swear was a laugh. "Hold on I'm setting up a series of symbols now ... Oh!"

"Oh?" I queried.

"I'm going to have to get a bit of help; you're a lot further away than I've ever known anyone to be ... And quite a bit off to the side as well my senses are telling me. If you weren't actually in contact with me from there I'd frankly not believe there was a possibility of such a direction existing."

Ten of the longest minutes of my life passed by whilst Ketty and Dorry looked at me curiously in between exploring Terome's lab set up.

"Right," sent Morgana. "Can you write the following glyphs and sigils on a doorframe, or any frame come to that?"

"Yes," I replied. "Hold on."

I went to the doorway to the room and at precise intervals I wrote down a series of symbols, far more than was normal for a portal, but many of these indicated a dimensional element as well as a focal point.

"Done," I sent.

"Good, now focus on them and I'll lock onto the pattern in your mind," Morgana replied. "On our way," came the words I was waiting for.

The door frame blazed white for a second then filled with a violet glow. Finally Morgana, Arch, Rowenna, Simon and Róisín stepped through.

"Oh my Gods!" exclaimed Ketty.

"Mages," I acknowledged with a formal bow. "Róisín," with a smile and a hug.

"You certainly know how to hide, John," said Simon. "I can scarce believe this place even exists. Why is that woman speaking French?"

"They radiate mental energy at this frequency," I answered and showed them as the Mages turned to study Ketty and Dorry.

"Ah, how odd," said Arch. "I did wonder why I was hearing what appeared to be German."

"The Council has posited for centuries that the further a world cluster parts, the different the way people will broadcast their thoughts," said Rowenna. "This may be the first proof we've had of it though, as most of us do not travel extensively beyond a few localised parallel universes. Anyway, pleased to meet you, young ladies," she said holding out her hand only for Ketty and Dorry to look blankly at her.

"Different social mores I suspect," I explained to Rowenna, who simply nodded and smiled. "I also suspect they find your fashion sense a bit different to what they are used to," Rowenna, Morgana and Róisín were in the height of fashion unlike the male Mages, the height of fashion being the mini-skirt and yes, all three had the legs to do it very nicely indeed.

"Could I see this machine please?" said Simon.

"Through here," said Ketty, who was clearly still a bit stunned from seeing people step out of thin air as well as showing so much leg. "Er your ... portal? Is switched off?"

"Oh yes," said Simon. "Please lead the way."

Morgana was meanwhile examining me, probably down to the genetic level again. It's not something she tends to talk about, but apparently I'm the only one she's ever had to do it too more than once.

"No harm to your cellular structure," she finally said. "God, I've missed you, John," as she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"I missed you too, my Mage," I said, blushing deeply.

Rowenna and Róisín were talking to Dorry and reassuring her that we meant no harm as Morgana, Arch and myself wandered through to the lab to see what Simon was doing. Ketty was on her radio-phone and speaking to some members of her resistance group and looking rather worried.

"An alert has gone out to all ground and air bosses in the town to send their troops here to retrieve the project," she said finally. "My group refuses to retrieve the attack thopter until the horizon is clear. We may be under attack in a few minutes."

"We'll deal with that," said Morgana and headed for the door out of the lab with myself closely behind.

Outside it was very, very quiet, the calm before the storm, I thought. Morgana meanwhile unhurriedly wandered around the building to see if it was free standing, upon ascertaining this she started drawing a chalk line around the building to aid her focus as I followed around making small glyphs and sigils in various places, when the lines were sealed Morgana simply activated the wards from inside by scanning the lines, sigils and glyphs then tapped the power from the supply running into the building to make it self-sustaining and not from her personal reserves. At that moment bounding into the square came an army of homunculi of varying types, many armed with futuristic looking weaponry, others just with tooth and claw, behind in some form of armour were the human minions of the ground bosses I presumed.

"This could be interesting," I said. "We don't normally get to try defensive wards against mundanes."

"I don't think they realise what they are up against," said Morgana as we detected more and more creatures heading for the square.

Above us I detected several flying machines circling and waiting I presumed on the order to attack.

At that moment two of the armoured figures approached the building, each holding both arms out to the side, which I presumed was a signal to parley.

About ten foot in front of the wards they stopped and one asked to speak to the person in charge, though admittedly not terribly politely.

"That would be me," said Morgana. "What do you want?"

"I don't negotiate with whores," came the arrogant reply. "Send out your pimp to surrender."

Oh bad, bad move I thought as Morgana gave him a lesson in manners. Using her mind she caused his armour to tighten until he screamed in pain then caused the joints to collapse him to his knees.

"I'd apologise to the Lady now, before it gets worse," I told him.

"Fuck you!" he gasped out.

"Wrong answer," I said. I turned to Morgana. "A lesson in politeness is required I think."

"Yes John, he's a prime example of how wars start," she answered as I heard various ribs and other bones break under the forces Morgana brought to bear until finally she allowed him to fall to the ground red faced and unconscious.

His partner looked horrified, but held his ground.

"Do you wish to continue in his manner?" Morgana asked sweetly.

"We are prepared to allow you to withdraw under safe conduct from this place in return for the safe return of the Over-masters property," he finally said.

Chapter 9 »