Chapter 23: Changes

When Kathy was eighteen, I was able to present her with a medallion and a ring.

Kathy is an Earth mage like me. One night about a week before her birthday, I’d been playing around with my jewellery as we were coming back from a mission.

I’d been trying a new mixture and had smelted some simple looking medallions that looked like a 3cm by 4cm rectangle with the tips of the corners cut off. Kathy had been learning how to engrave, so I was planning on giving her a heap of medallions to play with.

I had a heap of chains I’d made from previous mixtures. If I were using my moulds, I’d turn any leftover mixture into wire, as it was a great way to store it. I’d make up a box full of links. On quite evenings while we enjoyed our peace and the sunsets, we would all sit together and turn them into chains. I’d use magic to flatten them and join the links to finish them.

For this mixture, I’d altered it slightly and added a touch more silver, a bit of aluminium, the gold and copper and another element I had found. True, I could have formed the medallions with magic, but I liked playing with making the different alloys with the furnace, as the process fascinated me.

Over the last couple of years, I’d made some steel moulds. I coated them with the ceramic paint and then set them in the furnace overnight. I was quite pleased with the moulds. I made enough of them to cast twelve medallions at a time.

I’d made a different split mould that I could cast twelve basic rings with a wider thicker flat top in the band. I then played with making the different settings for the gems on the basic band, as I only had to manipulate the metal on top to hold the gems.

I’d made more mixture than I intended and had enough to make a full set of both medallions and rings. It was a beautiful peach-gold, and I liked it. The medallions had an 8mm square hole in the middle.

I’d learnt a few years before if I added a crystal in the middle I could charm them as small personal shields. They were great to give the kids to keep insects off them when they went into the forests outside the main shield. They also got warm if any predators were near them.

They didn’t have any other gems in them as I found for some reason I couldn’t give them to the little kids if they did. Many of them said they were hot to touch. But they did what I had intended. They were one of the reasons I’d had a lot of spare chains.

I checked the new blanks over, and I used a little magic to smooth out any rough edges and stacked them on the bench. I released the rings from their mould and did the same. I looked at them and decided I’d put them in a box to present them after I’d but the Quaz crystals on them. Kathy could them give them as gifts since Community day was a week after her birthday.

I’d been playing with another metal combination while at the outpost, as I’d found an unusual element. When added to the mix that David called Ozlium to produce a new alloy. I’d made about a dozen thin metre square sheets, and I was quite pleased with them.

I made the twelve boxes and attached a hinge to each one. They didn’t have clasps, as they were magically sealed. I put a spell on the lid so only the person I gave it to, could open the box. Happy with the boxes, I started putting the Quaz crystals in the medallions.

I was working on auto-pilot as I was thinking about Kathy while I worked. I’d made probably three dozen of these medallions in the past, and I didn’t have to think hard about what my hands were doing. I found it very relaxing and drifted into my thoughts.

Kathy did end up sleeping with Carlo and as I had predicted it didn’t last long. To my knowledge, she has also slept with the other five girls from her hatching. They aren’t as tightly grouped as other groups, and I’ve noticed that they have all picked someone from one of the older groups as their partners except Kathy.

It worried me, as she couldn’t seem to be able to find someone she was happy with. She had the same problem as me with finding love. She had two or three girls that she had semi-regular sex with, but that was all the commitment she offered on her part.

Additionally, I worried me that with me carting her off all the time it was affecting her relationships. I remembered the first time she came into season when we were away. That was a miserable week. As much as her smell was stirring me up, I just couldn’t touch her.

I perfected the art of masturbation that week. Oddly, I didn’t think of Kathy when I wanked myself. I thought of Ryka. I missed her at the oddest moments. I’d not used the Ring to go check on her, and my daughter, as something stopped me each time I thought of doing it.

I also refused to change to wolf that week and couldn’t explain why I was reluctant. I, however, knew damn well if I did, Kathy’s smell would get the better of me in that form. She’d get a lesson I didn’t wish to teach her. I chuckled, knowing Kathy she has probably had that lesson by now.

After the first two years, we had started bringing some of my other kids with us. Misha, Able’s daughter to me, had begged to come with us. Able was happy to let her. Apparently, she was a bit of a handful. Being my kid, I wasn’t that surprised.

We decided that since she was my oldest natural daughter, ten at the time and Kathy was happy to help supervise, this was acceptable. Misha spent a lot of time in her male form, and she turned out to be a great help. I suspected she would be a Nature mage if I ever worked out how to make the bling.

I had to smile as she too could take wolf form and we had spent a lot of time running around the forests and investigating the eco-systems. She’d find something interesting and change to human. She would inspect the specimen, collect it, put it in her satchel; change back to wolf and off she went again.

It was like having a frisky puppy with us. Fang and Fluff, our dogs, would keep a close eye on her, and while we were at an outpost, they stuck close to her. She even encouraged them to sleep with her, and you’d find the three of them curled up together in front of the fire or the middle of her bed.

We took Brandy on the next trip. I believed Effie’s daughter was also gifted. I decided that she was like her mother and an Energy mage. She was great at fixing all the electrical systems. The dogs also kept a close eye on her.

Her favourite form was Baboo, and she loved climbing everything. It came in handy for fixing the Shield Towers we had built. Her climbing frustrated the dogs but Freya and Tina had her measure, and I was more than happy that the faeries took over nanny duties. At least they could fly.

Gail’s daughter Ariel would be a Physics mage. If we were going near water, then she was the best choice to take with us. Mermaid was her favourite form, and she was great to have with us when we checked out what was in the lake, so the zoetics could stock it.

Kathy was able to change to this form, so the three of us had a lot of fun. Kathy had to be the extra set of eyes with Ariel. Oh, Ariel got her name from some silly cartoon from David’s archives that Gail loved to watch.

Mia pulled me from my musings to say that we were nearly home. I thanked her and looked at the bench, as I needed to clean up. I blinked several times as I took in what I’d been doing. I had the last ring in the vice and I had just finished fixing a gem to it.

Laid out in their pairs in the boxes were the other eleven sets. They each had the Quaz crystal and three gems. The medallions had the symbols inscribed on the front and the same message on the back, ‘I learn to serve’, with the mage type underneath.

I put the ring with its partner and closed all the boxes. I placed my hands over the top of them with my fingers splayed, so each box was touched. I took several deep breaths to clear my mind and dropped into a meditative state. I found the spells came automatically to me and said them as they did.

I then shuddered, and the hair on the back of my neck rose as I heard whispers. My head seemed to fill with the buzz of many voices that I couldn’t understand, and I blacked out from the intensity of them invading my mind.

When I came too, I took several deep breaths and removed my hands from the boxes. I was shivering a little, as an after effect of the strangest experience I have ever had. Something seemed different about my own bling, and I told it to appear.

I looked in shock at the ring and medallion. They had been altered and now had five gems and the crystal. I took off my diadem. One of quartz gems had been replaced with a diamond. It was only missing the topaz. It had also acquired a new band of the peach gold I’d made.

The ring and medallion now had new topazes, but they were still missing the moonstone. They now had half of the band made of the peach gold. I still had an odd set. I looked at them in shock.

“I’m a bloody wizard,” I said aloud. Then I got this negative feeling in my head. I’d never really connected with the spirit in my bling in a way I could understand it, but I felt the connection was stronger.

A new image came into mind. I had to make the rest of the items and the box to upgrade from apprentice to wizard, I thought. The bling seemed content with me thinking I was more an apprentice than a full wizard.

I looked at the boxes on the table and touched one. The spirit inside seemed happy enough. I got the impression that they considered themselves, high order novice’s boxes since they didn’t have the diadem or a wand.

I guessed I was going to have to pick up my act and learn how to make the other items. I was also pleased that I knew whom this box belonged to. I was tickled pink that I’d made magical boxes at all.

I took great delight presenting Kathy with her bling on her birthday.

It has been nearly a year since Kathy had received her box.

She loved being able to do magic. I was beginning to think she was stretching the limitations of her bling. I’d been working on the diadems and thought I had them perfected. I’d made new moulds for the six disciplines.

I’d made six of each and added different numbers of gems, but I’d not activated them. The wand and crystal ball was giving me a bit of grief, as I didn’t even have a copy of them to study.

We had a couple of other changes just after I upgraded to apprentice wizard. The Towers were getting a little crowded, and we had been debating building new ones. In the first week that I was back from my trip, we had a community meeting to discuss it further.

The girls used the meetings to catch me up on what had been happening and try to convince me to do some project they wanted me to work on. This meeting was held just before the Community Day Festival.

Able had come up with a new idea. She, Isa and three other families wanted to move to Lion Mountain a total of twenty-six people. This was my mining outpost that had the Ring installed. It wasn’t a stupid solution.

However, my first thought was, ‘What about Wednesday and Saturday nights?’

Isa and Able had been my bed partners on those nights for over thirteen years. I was still perfectly happy with our arrangement. I still had satisfying sex with my girls, and I did like spending time with them. We were comfortable.

Isa giggled when she saw my face, “We will have to hold a lottery for Wednesday and Saturdays for Mikal before we go. You’re more than welcome to spend the nights you visit with us Mikal.”

I blushed furiously at my thoughts being so obvious. It annoyed me that they could still get me to blush, as I went bright red. There were lots of giggles and general excitement. Several comments were made like, ‘It’s about bloody time’.

I said, “I’ll think about it.” This got me several boos and even the comment that they would hold the lottery anyway. To that comment, I replied, “No, I don’t think it would be wise to try and force me to do this.”

The room quietened. I guess I may have been a bit forceful in my rejection of the idea. So I said, “Would any of you like it if I told you that you must sleep with someone because everyone else decided that you should?”

I think I got my point across, as there were a few embarrassed faces. Isa said, “I’m sorry Mikal, it was a joke that went too far. You, of course, have every right to choose your own partners, as we have.”

I knew several of the girls were peeved that I refused to give them a child. I had nineteen kids counting Kathy, and I’d decided that was more than enough of my genes in the community pool as it was.

If they wanted my genes, they would have to wait until my kids were old enough. Tory said she had built longevity into our genes. She suspected we would live to about one-eighty to two hundred years if we didn’t have magical items. We also shouldn’t feel the effects of old age until very late in our lives, like the Genteli.

Those that had bling could be around for five to ten times that and for me, possibly a lot longer. I’d decided that about fifty to a hundred years between any future kids sounded good to me. The ones I had now were enough trouble.

For some reason, my kids’ favourite words were, “But why, Father?” Only Kathy called me daddy the other called me father or Sir for some reason I’ve never been able to fathom.

Isa and Able did move, and with the Ring working, they could come back when they chose. So far, I hadn’t replaced them with a permanent girl. I had allowed quite a few to approach me on a Saturday for a night of fun as long as they weren’t in season.

We soon learnt that for those whose bling had only one gem I could be a bit too much. I discouraged those with none. For some reason, only my subconscious understands why I left Wednesdays as a no sex night like Sundays. I’d made that Kids Night, and had my different kids spend it with Kathy and me, as she still lived with me.

I’d even moved to Able’s old apartment upstairs so the kids could stay the night. This seemed to please the majority. I wasn’t totally out of bounds, and they all approved of me spending time with my kids, so things settled down to a new norm.

One other thing I changed was I’d pick a girl to come on the trips with me. Two criterions were that I’d have to have slept with them on a previous occasion, so I knew what I was getting, and they had to have bling. I’d always check with Rusty when they were last in season and preferred to pick a girl who had just had hers.

The girls soon made sure I knew they were available so I did have a bit of fun and sure didn’t mind the sex while I was away. Since I’d had my magical upgrade going without for a month was a bit long for me. On a couple of occasions, I’d even had to teleport back to one of my girls for relief.

I decided I liked these new changes.

The island we were going to was about 200km east of us.

Tory had picked up something of interest on her satellites as well as a strange signal. We had some serious earth tremors from the region six months before. Tory said that land had been pushed up out of the sea to form a new island.

The strange signal she now, got had her and Rusty curious. So Katy, Ariel, Danny, Indi and I were going to pop over for a look and then head south to a huge island that was about half way between two of our furthermost southern outposts.

Indy was from the second group of girls Tory had gestated and four years younger than me. She had lovely big purple eyes and pale green hair. I’d picked her for this trip because mermaid was her favourite alternate form.

It didn’t hurt that she was also a damn fine fuck. She had been one of the first I had approached for a Saturday night fling. I’d remembered having a lot of fun with her the week I got her pregnant with Danny.

She was also, what you call a free spirit. She didn’t tend to stay with a partner for more than a year. She’d not birthed any more children either, which surprised me. I knew that three of her previous partners had children with her.

She did, however, keep Danny as her child. He was now nine. I say he because the only time I had seen him in female form was when he was asleep. He was a damn fine looking lad if I do say so myself.

He would probably rival me in height when he matured. I was sure he would be an Earth mage like me. I guess you would call him a chip off the old block. He was one of my favourite kids. He had a lovely sunny nature and was a pleasure to have around.

One of the other reasons I had picked Indi was that she was one the recipients of the boxes I had made. She was dominantly a Nature mage. Her other main traits were Lore and Physics, like Hail. If I did eventually choose one partner, I’d be hard pressed to find better.

I’m surprised I’d taken so long to realise what a lovely person she was. I guess being open to a new experience let me see her in a new light. The thing was I didn’t feel the same sort of love for her as I had for Ryka.

I’ve wondered over the last fourteen years how true that was love was. After all, Darin had taken her from me. I like to blame it on the berries, but I think on some level I frightened her and she let the berries, her fear and her uncertainty of me, pick Darin as a safer alternative.

I guess I’ll never know.

Mia circled over the anomaly.

We were astounded to find that it was a section of the ship Torus, which had crashed on this planet. It must have landed in the sea, and the recent upheavals had lifted it out of the water by 25m with the some of the adjacent sea floor. We could pick out where access doors should be.

It looked like the greenhouses on top were still intact. Like the doors, they were covered in marine growths, so it was hard to be sure. I got Mia to hover just above the ground, and I transported myself to the island below.

I cleared a large flat area so she could land. I’d pushed the top of the rocks to the east to build a 10m high curved sea wall and made sure the landing spot was compacted. The spot I’d flattened was still 12m above sea level so unless a big storm came in, we should be fine.

While Mia was landing, I built a set of wide stairs two steps deep up to the access door on this side. I was able to remove the growths and standing to one side, I magically forced the doors open. I was surprised the air wasn’t putrid. It had a slight staleness, but that was all.

I waited for the others to join me and we activated light globes and entered. It soon became apparent that the second level, which we were on, hadn’t had water in it. The top level, being the greenhouses, was still above us.

Out of curiosity, we found the stairs and headed down. I had noted that the ship still had faint preservation spells on it. I suspected the controller had not been dead for more than fifteen to twenty years.

The growths on the greenhouse also gave this impression. I knew if controllers went into hibernation mode, and only woke every five to ten years and only stayed awake a few weeks to fix things, they could live a lot longer. I felt sad that we hadn’t found her sooner.

Tory had said it was only the last thousand years that the sea had really started to develop organisms that had a lot more complexity. For a long time, they only had plankton and simple organisms to boost the atmosphere. Once they were well established she had started to introduce fish and molluscs.

The coastal outposts had been designed to get growth on the coasts to stabilise them and life into the sea. With the growths on the ship being well established, I’d say she had succeeded. We were over 200km from the coast, and the nearest outpost was where we lived. The organisms had spread far and wide.

We had found turtle eggs on a beach at an outpost that was about 250km from the city. We had seen some huge specimens waddle out of the sea. Turtles would travel thousands of kilometre as they matured and then come to lay their eggs where they had hatched. They also spread molluscs and other plants that grew on their backs.

Tory was pleased that they had grown so large, as it meant they were able to find enough food in the seas to survive. I wish she hadn’t hatched the damn seagulls. I know they had their place in her plan, but all the same, they were messy noisy creatures.

I’d gotten to the point a couple of years ago of adding a spell to the shield so they couldn’t enter the city. It also kept out her versions of rats, mice, pigeons and bugs. I loathe pigeons as much as much as seagulls.

We went down eight levels before we came to water. I’d stopped at the door on the ninth level when I realised it had lights light indicating it was pressure locked. I placed a new spell on it for good measure. We decided not to go further at this point and started spreading out to see what we could find.

I’d scored the sixth floor, so I hiked back up the stairs. I’d gone down two corridors when I found a room that had different spells on it. I unravelled the spells and entered the chamber. To my surprise, weak lighting came on. I also heard an insistent beeping noise and went to investigate.

A second door opened automatically, and I stood there stupefied as I looked into the room. I blinked several times and then I walked down the rows of chambers and looked upon my ancestors in amazement.

A light was flashing over one of the chambers, and I touched it. I detected that the system was failing and if not fixed soon, then the person inside would die. I looked at the young man. He was nearly as tall as I was. I knew he wasn’t a shape shifter and that this was his natural form. He was in a deep state of hibernation.

“Rusty,” I said.

Ed connected me through to her, and she replied, “Yes Mikal?”

“Rusty, how do I remove a person from stasis?” I asked.

“I beg your pardon?” she said shocked.

I stepped back and held up my wrist so Ed could show her what I was looking at. “There are four lights, the first three are not lit, and the last one is flashing really fast,” I said.

“Really fast you say? Torus’s files say that the chamber is failing and you need to press the triangle button on your left to cycle down the chamber and release the person. Oh my goodness, I think you have found Torus-13.”

“Mikal, one of Torus-16’s last entries says that one hundred people were put in stasis on that section, two hours before the ship broke up. Sixty are shapeshifters, and forty are Grandteli. They had been living on the Pix world, which they also called Earth. They would survive here Mikal,” she said with excitement.

“That’s if they haven’t all gone mad,” I said as I watched in fascination as the man shivered. Bloody hell! He was still alive. I turned to see Kathy enter the chamber and she joined me. She stared at the young man in fascination. I grinned at her, and she grinned back.

Tory then piped in, “No, Mikal. The Queen puts them into a sort of suspended animation. They don’t even dream. It’s like a time out of time situation. When they wake, it will feel like they have only been in there for a few minutes.”

“Will any of them be mages?” Kathy asked her eyes were riveted on the young man.

“Not people wearing magical items. They may have the capabilities. But for some reason magicians can’t stay in suspension of any sort for more than twenty Keltrian years, like us Controllers,” Rusty answered.

Kathy put her hand on the door as she watched the young man. He seemed more relaxed that when I first saw him. We could see him taking a breath, and then we heard a hiss and the door split. One section slid up, the other down.

He gasped several times as if he was choking and stumbled forward into Kathy’s arms and then he collapsed. I helped her support him, and we lowered him to the floor.

“Daddy, he’s not breathing,” she said in distress. She placed her mouth over his and blew. She lifted her mouth off his and then placed it again to blow into his. I chuckled as his arm came up and behind her head to hold her as he kissed her.

I lifted my eyebrows as neither of them seemed in any hurry to break the kiss. Finally, Kathy pulled back. I watched as the young man’s eyelids fluttered open. “I’ve gone to the Goddess and Angels are real,” he said.

“Sorry son. Kathy may be gorgeous but an Angel she isn’t,” I said.

The young man frowned and looked at both of us. “Something is wrong. I don’t know you people and your accent is very strange,” he said.

“Yes, something went very wrong. Torus broke up not long after you came aboard. Rusty says you have been in stasis for over three thousand years,” I told him.

He looked sad, and he sat up. Then he said, “So the home world is gone. How many of our people made it to here?”

I shook my head, “None who made it down to the surface of this planet lived. We do have some faeries, but they were on the planet before the ship broke up. Torus’ records indicate that people were evacuated to some of the other sections. But that is all we know.”

He looked shocked. “None! We had over a thousand people put in stasis on this ship,” he said in horror.

“They must have been in the other sections as the three that landed here didn’t have any. We only became aware of the existence of this section due to a quake, as it was in the sea. If any other sections landed on this planet, we haven’t located them,” I told him regretfully.

“So who are you people?” he inquired.

“Oh well that is a longer explanation, and I think we will save it for later. How about we check to see if any of the other chambers are in distress as yours was?” I said as Kathy and I helped him up.

I was amused to find I was still taller, but not by much. He was a handsome lad with dark blonde, shoulder length hair. He was solid and well-muscled and going by Kathy’s reaction to him, he was going to assist our gene pool in growing.

We found ten of the chambers had failed. Going by the ash, it had been months or even years before. Toby said that his people only took about six weeks to reduce to ash. This corresponded to our data, so I was pleased he was being forthright with us.

We also found ten chambers that had no ash and were open. Toby said he couldn’t say for sure if anyone had ever been put in them, as he was one of the first groups. He just remembers being told one hundred were to be put in this section of the ship.

He told us they had been collected from all over his planet. The new Queen had wanted people with magical potential and less than thirty of their years of age. The shapeshifters that lived on his planet had asked to go to a new world, so she had agreed to help them.

Some of the Grandteli aboard had agreed to go with them because they didn’t really like the Pix world as it had stunted their growth in the generations they had been there. He didn’t care. It had been the world that he’d been born on and he didn’t know any different.

Toby told us the ship was supposed to leave Hades and go to another nearby system where they had identified a planet they considered suitable, as it was well established. It wasn’t as light in gravity as the Grandteli wanted. However, it was lighter than Hades, and Planet 3, where they had come from.

There had been some argument about the next planet. Some believed it had primitive humanoids on it. One of the other wheelships had located it. It was clear across the universe from the Keltrian system.

“So are some your people going to give us grief about being on this planet? We understand it is more like the Pix’s home world rather than the Grandteli’s?” I asked.

Toby shrugged, “I doubt they have any choice. They should be thankful to be alive. Going by the state of most of these chambers it’s a wonder any of us are. I don’t know most of these people. I came from a farm and had only tried for selection because my mother wished it.”

“Well, how about we get the ones who only have one or two lights still on out first. That should take some of the strain off of the system and give us time to release the rest,” I suggested.

We extracted another nine people. That still left seventy, but then again I could only fit so many people in the shuttle unless they sat in the cargo hold. It was only a short flight to the mainland, but it wouldn’t be comfortable.

I started worrying about the logistics of finding homes for eighty people. We needed to build accommodation for them. We had some spare rooms but not enough for eighty new people. It was going to put a drain on our resources.

We had a lot in storage but even so.

The trouble started with the next person we released, and it didn’t get much better.

Apparently, she was one of the dissenters. She immediately demanded to be taken to the ship’s Captain. She informed us that she wasn’t supposed to be released until the planet had adequate facilities for her.

By this time, Indi, Danny and Ariel had re-joined us. Indi said, “Yes madam, please come with me.” Indy walked her down three chambers and pressed the button. The chamber opened. “Please step in,” Indy said.

The woman looked into the chamber, “What is that at the bottom?” she asked in disgust.

“I believe his name was something like Guanith,” Indi said. She smiled at the woman. “Guanith died about a hundred years ago according to the readout, so he won’t mind sharing.”