Chapter 22

We approached the scene of the Nephilim incursion very carefully. The Æsir warned us that Nephilim scouts used a type of long range magically enhanced rifle to target any they saw approaching the front.

"How much land have they taken?" I enquired of Vanir Torsenn who was our escort to the incursion.

Over 800 square rôst, a rôst is roughly one of your miles," he said. "Only Nephilim appear to be alive in there as they kill anyone they find, even babes in arms."

"Barbarians!" I muttered. "How many incursions?"

"Only the two on Svipdag," Torsenn said. "They are currently trying and succeeding to link them both, despite all the aid you have given us, though it is costing them and us dear."

"We will give as much aid as we can," said Morgana.

"For that we are thankful, but we also need people to train our people in the weapons you have supplied us. Longbows they are not," Torsenn replied.

"Difficult," I said. "Though not impossible."

"Indeed, John. A little mindwipe and no one from our world will be any the wiser," said Morgana.

"There are also dissidents too, who might appreciate a new life on a new world," I said.

"I will let Simon Magus know of your needs, Vanir Torsenn," Morgana said. "He is keen to prevent the Nephilim from gaining any greater foothold than they already have."

"That would be most appreciated, Seiðkona Morgana," Torsenn replied sincerely.

I carefully allowed my magical senses expand around me and found several Nephilim in the area, not just the scouts to our front, all with that built in mindshield.

"You see them, John?" Morgana asked.

"Yes, would be easy to deal with them, just make their hearts explode in their chests," I replied.

"Our Seiðmaðr have tried this, the Nephilim Seiðmaðr counter almost immediately," Torsenn replied.

"May I?" I asked Morgana and Torsenn.

They both nodded and Morgana shielded Torsenn. I had planned on simply stopping their hearts, but thought instead of a manoeuvre I'd tried in Kurukshetra. I expanded my senses even further out, completely passive, nothing active and found a very large group of Nephilim. They were assembled behind a Mage driven warded screen, but I wasn't too bothered about that as I planned to use that to spring my trap. Scanning the ward I then used my mind to remove all the oxygen under the shield which the ward was not set up to prevent and waited for a reaction. None came and I felt in my mind the Nephilim fall and die without knowing what had happened to them including their Mages who could not draw breath to cast any counterspells.

"It's done," I said to Morgana who simply stared at me in amazement.

"My God, John! That was ... they all just died ... and never knew why," she said, looking at me in horror.

"Fair fights are for those who are winning," I replied. "The Æsir are not winning, are they, Vanir Torsenn?"

"No, Seiðmaðr John, we aren't. Despite the pronouncements of our Generals and leaders," Torsenn finally replied. "How many?"

"Over 700, a full battle group similar to the one which ported into Kurukshetra as well as all their scouts," I replied. "Your people can advance in there now. There are no other Nephilim for 50 rôst to our front."

"But how?" asked Torsenn.

"It's your culture, it places a great value upon honour and if you must fight, you fight face to face and don't try to cheat. I am under no such compunction and so chose to kill the Nephilim by drawing the breath from their lungs from a distance in which they could not see me nor even fight back as they did not know what was happening," I replied.

Torsenn nodded slowly.

"Yet I know you to be a man of honour, you showed this with Hinter Vassaille and the family of Tesslarr," he said.

"Hinter and Tesslarr's family had not spent their time hunting and butchering innocents in very brutal and inventive ways. They were worthy of honour and respect. What those Nephilim did will fill me with disgust and revulsion for the rest of my days," I replied.

"Indeed so, Seiðmaðr John, perhaps you are right and we have been deeming these Nephilim too much honour," Torsenn said.

We were interrupted by several Seiðkona porting in beside us.

"Who did this atrocity?" asked one of the more senior ones.

"That would be me," I replied firmly.

"What will happen if they respond in kind?" the Seiðkona angrily shouted at me.

"Don't let them," I replied. "Besides, how was it any worse than stringing up Æsir children and cutting their stomachs open to spill upon the ground until they died in agony? At least these scum died far more peacefully than your children and people did."

"He speaks truth, Seiðkona Nakkam and you know it," said Torsenn. "You've seen what these Nephilim are capable of."

"I would not see us descend to their level!" he angrily retorted.

"Then you will lose and lose badly if you do not set honour aside to deal with those who do not even recognise the concept. Do you ascribe honour to vipers? Or simply make sure they cannot bite you?" I asked.

There were murmurs of agreement amongst the Seiðkona who had ported in with Nakkam, even Morgana nodded though still looked troubled.

"I will have to speak to the Styraesvollrr about this," said Nakkam. "It may be that you are correct, but in my heart I cannot countenance such deeds myself and it may be that I am no longer suited to leading a Seiðmaðr dróttina in battle."

The Seiðkona ported back out and we continued the observation of the Nephilim incursion. Morgana's face grew harder and harder as we passed with several dróttina armed with AK47's through atrocity after atrocity. Men, women and children, tortured and mutilated before dying in agony, with added rape for the women. We gathered by various means that the Nephilim were reeling back in retreat not knowing what had happened to their battle group and the Æsir were pressing their new advantage hard home.

"I had planned to take you to task over what you did, John," said Morgana quietly when we stopped for a break. "But having seen what the Nephilim did, I find I cannot blame you at all, if anything you were far too merciful to them."

"Thank you, my Mage," I replied. "It's not something I'm proud of, but I deemed it more than necessary."

"I think perhaps we Mages have become too soft, too distant in not involving ourselves with the lives of ordinary people. We can practice our gift and simply up sticks and leave if things become bad. I'm going to have to think long and hard about this very soon, I don't like what my head and heart are telling me about ignoring evil simply because it's one of the rules," Morgana said.

"Different rules apply on our Earth. I doubt the Nephilim would get half as far against our militaries with us covertly helping them," I replied.

"True, John," said Morgana. "Yet I still believe that the Council need to discuss the rulings of non-intervention in the light of not helping, if we can do without fear of discovery. Sometimes it would be nice to help, we could have saved thousands in the Nazi death camps had we been allowed."

"I suspect someone in the Nazi high command might have noticed," I said. "But it's a nice sentiment."

"You're probably right, John. It's just I've had my eyes opened today and don't like to think about what I may have ignored," Morgana spoke quietly.

"Beats me why the Nephilim haven't used area effect spells either," I said.

"Normally a Mage can pick up on the power being used to start such an effect and easily counteract it," said Morgana. "What you did was so subtle I almost didn't recognise what you were doing myself. I would never have thought to use their own defences against them."

"I simply cannot throw power spells around like you yet, my Mage, missing mountain tops notwithstanding," I replied with a wry smile. "So I try to use other peoples' powers against them. They rarely expect it."

"Yes, John. I remember you used it against Merlin too at your first meeting with him," Morgana said.

"So long as the Nephilim have no idea what I did, then so much the better," I replied. "I can't think of an effective defence against it yet."

"I can think of a few," said Morgana. "I'll go over them with you later."

"Thank you, my Mage." I replied.

We returned to Sverresborg and were met as ever by Vaniralla Freya and her household detachment who escorted us to the residence. This time however all the interest on our party was focussed upon me rather than Morgana, who was dressed rather conservatively this time in some sort of Earth military fatigues.

"Seems the news is out that you eradicated a Nephilim battle group, John," Morgana said quietly.

"These people have no concept of need to know, do they?" I replied.

"No, they don't," said Morgana. "But I doubt that the how rather than the who will get out, which is just as well as I don't think the Æsir would cope too well with the Nephilim doing the same to them.

"Just hope the Nephilim haven't an infiltration squad or sympathisers here to cause trouble," I said to Morgana's frown. "Hello, we appear to be taking a diversion."

"I have been tasked to lead you to a special session at the Thingvollrr," replied Vaniralla Freya at my enquiry.

"Lead on then, Vaniralla," I replied.

The Æsir Thingvollrr is an impressive building and is one of the few on the Æsir worlds going above two stories high. As with all Æsir buildings it looks like a fortress on the outside but is quite airy and open on the inside. We were taken into a small ante-chamber to wait for a while before we were summoned into a small meeting room containing a mixture of Mages and politicians. I did recognise a few faces including Seiðkonas Nakkam and Snorrison, neither of whom were giving anything away by their expressions.

"Please be seated," said Vaniralla Freya. "This meeting has been called to enquire into the actions of Journeyman Mage John of Earth. It is not a trial and nor will he be called to the Seiðenrung for anything said here. We simply wish to discuss the implications of his actions and find out how and what he did. Mage Morgana, it has already been decided at a higher level that if we can do this to the Nephilim ourselves, then we will as they have foregone honour by their actions in their incursions. So please do not be alarmed." This last at Morgana who had sat up straight at the initial sentence looking extremely dangerous.

"You should be aware that any inference as to John's actions reflects upon me, his Mage, and if necessary I will deal with any ill-considered words appropriately in the Seiðenrung," said Morgana in flat blunt tones.

"Your words are noted, Seiðkona Morgana," said Freya. "And as judge to the Thingvollrr I endorse them fully," she said this with a long cold stare at the assembled Æsir.

"Seiðmaðr John, could you explain to this committee in layman's terms just exactly how you managed to take down a full Nephilim battle group, with at least seven of their senior Mages, without even causing any alarm amongst them or any of the other Nephilim observers?" requested Seiðkona Snorrison.

"You are aware that the Nephilim use a full ward shield around them to both warn and defend themselves from attack?" I asked.

"We do indeed, young Seiðmaðr. Please continue," said Seiðkona Nakkam politely.

"What they do not realise about this shield is that it is porous to air and open to examination. You cannot tamper with the wards, but what you can do is remove the oxygen content within the ward as it does not detect this and this does not take a massive energy exchange, as say trying to hit it with bolt lightning."

"You suffocated them?" asked Seiðkona Snorrison.

"Indeed, Seiðkona Snorrison. It was far more merciful than they deserved, I fear, but very effective," I replied.

"I concur, Seiðmaðr John," replied Snorrison. "Yet the question remains at least for the Seiðkona here, how did you do it? We simply have no idea of the concept involved, nor have any of our high Seiðverrat."

I suddenly realised the advantages of having a scientific education. Most Mages, at least of my generation, did as did those engaged in academia and scientific pursuits. Others like Morgana, Rowenna and Simon Magus kept up with current progress by constant perusal of scientific and medical journals. On my Earth this was the norm for Mages as we tend to blend in with society rather than live openly in it. I realised that the Æsir society was static to a great extent as there was no impetus towards a scientific progress or method when you could simply ask the nearest Mage to come and do the science stuff such as heavy lifting or purification for you. Æsir society was still stuck in exactly the same place as when the Tuatha Dé Danann invaded 1000 years ago, they simply had no idea of what comprised the individual components of air or probably water come to that.

"The air you breathe has a certain component to it which is what your body takes in," I said, almost stumbling at having to explain something so basic. "Remove that component and you die, like your miners sometimes do when they breathe bad air," I finished lamely.

The Æsir Mages glanced at each other unsurely, though some like Seiðkona Snorrison nodded sagely.

"What Seiðmaðr John said confirms my own research," he said. "I presented it to you several years ago, but if you do recall..."

More nods from the Æsir as they finally grasped what I was saying.

"Which of the various components did you remove?" asked Snorrison.

"The one we call oxygen," I replied. "It only makes up about 20% of air, but it's the part we need."

The assembled Æsir nodded and I could see that several were planning to explore the possibilities of using such an attack on the Nephilim as and when they could figure out which part of air was oxygen and how to apply my method of extraction to the Nephilim ward screens.

The meeting carried on for a while as the assembled Æsir extracted as much details as they were able to, at least to begin experiments themselves.