Chapter 1

I was sitting on the cliff watching the smoke of my former life rise and join the fog on the mountain. Below, there were three black government SUV’s and a swarm of people going over the ruins of my former life.

I felt something watching me at that point, which made me glad I was in Geralt form. Sending out my senses, I detected a drone overhead. I fried its electronics, then flashed into the cave.

Looking at everyone, I said “This area is too hot. We need a new home.”

Sara spoke up, “We have a place over in the four corners area of Arizona we use to disappear in when it’s time for a new ID.”

I thought about that for a moment then asked “How far is it from any population center?”

“The major population in the area consist of the Navajo, Hopi, Ute, and Zuni native nations, none of which are particularly trusting of the government. The mesa it’s inside of, is on the Navajo side.”

I searched through her memories and reviewed it. Looking at her, I said “It looks good. How do we get there?”

“With a little boost in power, I can open a portal there.”

I set about making wards that would mask the portal energy, then said “When it opens, we need to transit fast. I don’t want to burn this location needlessly.”

Everyone joined hands and feed power to Sara. Soon a portal opened and we all went through with me bringing up the rear. As soon as my feet stepped into the new cave, the portal collapsed.

Sending my senses out, I detected a structure over my head.

Sara detected the scan and said “It’s a cell tower on the mesa.”

Nodding my head, “A smart location then. We can access the cell tower and connect through it to the world.”

I looked at Ciri and said “This image needs to lay low for a while. I was spotted back on the mountain and at the con in association with Sara, Bethany, and Gale.”

She just nodded.

I sent out as wide a net as I had energy for, to map the area in my mind. there was a small tourist town at the base of the mesa, but my attention focused on the ore deposits I spotted in the ground instead. I turned to Sara and asked “Were you aware of the ore deposits in this area?”

“Yes, it’s why this area was chosen to begin with. It being reservation land, we couldn’t buy it, but nothing stopped us from making a base here in this cavern. No one else could get to it either. The opening to the cavern system is still only eight inches in diameter, so unless it was a dwarf or fairy in true form, this area was effectively off limits.”

I pulled out the Quimbaya artifact portal key and said, “It’s time to charge this then.”

I sat and began to cultivate, however, instead of drawing the energy into myself, I pushed it into the artifact. I kept this up for the next twenty-four hours. The amount of energy the artifact stored surprised me. I had charged loads of Nd by this time, but whatever this thing was made of, it took twenty times the charge that Neodymium would.

Trying to scan the artifact revealed another mystery. The energy I had just filled it with was being siphoning off to parts unknown. I thought on this a bit and figured whatever it was doing, it was part of the process. With that thought, I embedded a charging rune into a rock shelf then placed the artifact in the middle of it. After activating the rune, I scanned the artifact again, seeing the trickle discharge turn into a torrent as it sucked the energy from the local leylines.

I gathered Hitomi and Yoshika and asked “Before, when you activated the portal, did you charge the artifact or set it up like this?”

“No, we activated the portal and nothing else,” they replied with a look of concern.

“It’s possible this thing is not only an access portal, but a charging device as well. The energy it’s pulling out right at this moment, is more than it took to create every artifact I’ve made to date. It has to be going somewhere.”

Hitomi looked at me and asked “Do you think that’s what killed our former master?”

“It may have had something to do with it. However, the symptoms you described were from vacuum exposure. It’s also why I have that suit. We will give it two days or until it stops drawing energy to activate it. If there is still a vacuum on the other end, I’ll be protected by the suit.”

I looked over at Sara and asked, “Is that town below strictly tourist? Would I stand out too much visiting it?”

She replied “If you go, stay away from their medicine man. If he picks up your energy, he may mistake you for a Skinwalker.”

I had to search her memories for that one. Apparently, Skinwalkers were evil witches that disguised themselves as animals. I didn’t look to far into the history. Skinwalker bad, stay away from anyone spiritual, was all I really needed to know. Then again, I was being an idiot. Details have gotten me in a lot of trouble. This whole disaster had started because I ignored the detailed questions in favor of a blowjob

With that, I looked deeper into the memories, particularly those surrounding Skinwalkers. There I found a relevant detail. Navajo didn’t trust people who wore animal hides other than buckskin. Those people were automatically under suspicion of being a Skinwalker. I looked down at myself and made the transition from cow leather to buckskin. It might be over the top, but no sense in taking chances.

I portaled to the top of the mesa where I could get a visual of the town. After a look, I noted the mesa was all shear cliffs except for where the power feed for the tower had been cut. I started the walk to the town. I took no less than three strikes from rattlers on the way. Thankfully my current body was immune to the poison, and my buckskin prevented all but one strike from penetrating. When I got to the base of the Mesa, a tribal cop stopped me.

“Why were you up there” he asked.

“Looking for a better view” was my reply.

He said, “Get in, I’ll give you a lift to town.”

I got in the passenger seat, and was driven to town without comment. After getting out he said, “It would be a good idea not to go wondering around here. That mesa you were on is covered with Hopi rattle snakes.”

I looked him in the eye and said “I know, I have the tooth of one lodged in my boot right here” as I lifted my leg and showed it to him.

He just shook his head and walked off mumbling something about “dumbass tourist.”

Me, I made a beeline for a coffee shop. Maybe it was only psychological as caffeine didn’t do anything to this body, but I did feel calmer after a cup. After getting a large coffee, I went to look at the various art work displayed on the street. In doing so, I also made note of the obvious government types watching the crowd. I realized I was being complacent again, and put up my shields just before a massive energy probe swept over me.

The signature of the energy was an artifact, which left me wondering what the fuck they were looking for here.

I sent a sweep of my own, pinning down the source of the artifact. It was moving rapidly in my direction which had me preparing to attack by gathering some energy into myself at ready.