Cassandra- Magic's Hope Read online

  “Another few months, and they realized they would die if they didn’t go back, but they couldn’t. They sent scouts out to worlds closer to their own magically wise, closer dimensionally, and they found a world that was damaged and with no humans on it, which was magic world. There were signs that the Phoenix race had removed all intelligent life on that world.”

  I smiled wryly, “They figured it would be safe for them to colonize, thinking the scourge wouldn’t back track to a world they’d already neutralized as a threat. So the dragons left, mere months after they arrived, and as you know the dragons slowly faded into legend as the years passed, merely a story. The problem was, they were used to having human slaves, to do the planting, and take care of herds. So they opened the portal and marched thousands of humans through with them.”

  I took a sip of my coffee and tried to order my thoughts for the next part. My throat felt tight.

  “The magic of course was just what the dragons needed to thrive. The problem was, it was so strong it was poisonous to the normal humans from our world. When all was said and done, only two percent of them survived. Just twenty, out of a thousand human beings,” I said softly.

  “One of those, turned out to be my source of information, the author of the books there. He was a soldier, and an architect. He actually designed the villages you’ve all seen, it was a template, and so far it hasn’t changed at all in over two thousand years. Back to the point, the dragons went back to Earth and took another thousand, again only two percent survived.”

  I looked at Cat sadly through tears, “Would you like to tell the next part? Why I’ve put up warning enchantments to know when they’re attacked. Why I feel we owe them so much? I’d rather hear it from your point of view than what I read.”

  Chapter 10

  Cat sighed and nodded, her eyes looked far away and sad.

  “Back then there wasn’t any schooling. Knowledge was hard to come by. I could study things with my magic of course, but I wasn’t nearly as capable as I am now, or even close to you three young ones come to that. Witches did little things back then, helping ensure a good crop, healthy births, that sort of thing. When the dragons attacked we just didn’t have the knowledge or power to beat them.

  “Those three witches they killed were older and more powerful than I was, I was a mere babe back then in comparison. A few months later when they left, I was happy. They’d taken a thousand slaves and I wasn’t all that pleased about that, but on balance the rest of the world was now safe, and there was nothing I could’ve done anyway.”

  She sighed and looked up at me, “But then they came back and took another thousand. I’d studied how they opened the world gate, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it myself yet.”

  She looked at my mother who for some reason looked surprised.

  Cat chuckled, “Did you think you’re the first witch to cotton on to that? Some things should be discovered, not taught.”

  She took a sip and looked back at me, “So now I was concerned about a second group, only to find out they were back again for a third group a mere three weeks later. I just couldn’t watch it again, but I couldn’t fight, so I joined them instead, slipped into their numbers and went through the gate. I’d gotten a good look at it then, and was pretty sure I’d be able to get home.

  “When we got there, only thirty eight people continued to survive from the original two thousand. I started researching it not knowing what else to do. I couldn’t bring them home, the dragons would just stomp me for trying, the only thing I could give them was hope. The hope of life.

  “I figured out soon enough what allowed the small percentage to live, they had the DNA to survive, and build up natural shielding. Somehow arriving at magic world as you call it activated those quiescent traits. Perhaps it was their will to live that actually did it, but for whatever reason about two percent of the Earth’s normal population had the right stuff.

  “It wasn’t perfect of course, because they didn’t belong on that world. But I even expected they’d be able to cast magic at some point if they tried hard enough, but that wasn’t my concern. I came forward and said I could save the ones that had started dying in the new batch. I treated it like a genetic disease and simply spliced in the DNA they needed to survive.

  “But then I had my second shock, not all of them got better. About half of them continued to die. I believe it was simply because they expected to die, they didn’t believe it would work, so the magic in their bodies obeyed their thoughts and the strand wasn’t activated.”

  She frowned, “I also became concerned, because a few of the women were pregnant. Sure, all new children would inherit the right DNA, but would it activate? That’s when I designed an enchantment to force the DNA to activate. I stayed there for six months, and when our journal writer built a building to my specifications for women to birth in, I carved the enchantment into the walls, it was the only way I knew they would be able to duplicate it later on.

  “I assume it’s also one of the reasons all towns are the same, they must believe half their kids will die after birth if they don’t follow things exactly. It was all I could give them, life. So after those six months, and I was sure the dragons wouldn’t be going back to earth for more humans, I opened my first world gate, and went home.”

  She looked down as if ashamed, “I did go back. Once. When I was about five hundred eighty I went back with the belief I finally had the power to face the dragons. But there were no dragons there anymore, the war was over, and the people were learning rudimentary magic. There were twenty towns back then, and they had those protection plinths, which I have no idea who created because I’m sure it wasn’t them. Point is, they were free from the dragons.

  “Sure, they still took care of the herds, and crops, but they were paid for it. I’m not sure how that change came about either, but it didn’t matter. They were no longer slaves, didn’t need me, so I went home and tried to forget.”

  I frowned, not sure I could have done any better. It was different now that the dragons were attacking again, but back then when at peace, I’d have probably done the same thing. There’d been no reason to fight back then. Peace was the ideal solution after all, witches never looked for a fight.

  I smiled softly her way, “I can answer that. There was a third race that was attacked by the Phoenix world, another powerful magical race, the Fae, or faeries.

  “When the phoenix race back tracked and found people in a world they already cleansed of intelligent life, they started attacking again. But the faeries visited and built the plinths. The humans there can copy them for their new villages, but that’s the limit of their understanding.

  “Anyway, the shields protect from the dragons in a decent fashion, but that wasn’t their true purpose. The enchantments on the plinths were absolutely deadly to the phoenix race. The dragons grabbed onto that fact like a drowning man grabs a preserver. They raced home and set up their own protections. Not only that, but the large plinths are small enough for a dragon to carry around in his paw, and power with his magic. So they went on the offensive and started to hunt the phoenix.

  “The war was over shortly after. The dragons on magic world showed the humans honor by leaving them the planet when they went home… they were tired of their self imposed exile. Without direct supervision to keep them in line, they decided to offer the humans their blood as a magic source, in payment for keeping up with the work they had until then, been doing for free.

  “Then, you all know the rest, over time the tentative peace went downhill until what we have today. If you want more of the details, let me know and I’ll spin up the memories. I have a whole library’s worth, so it may take a while to digest.”

  Amber sighed, “I can see why you think we owe them and I agree, to a point. They are of our world, and we failed to protect them once already. On the other hand sis, be careful will you? It isn’t your fault. They’ve been independent a long time, and I doubt they’d be willing to move back to our w
orld.”

  I shrugged, and wondered why I was hesitant to pass out what I learned. Would I be like Cat someday, demanding people earn their knowledge and power. I didn’t know, yet I still wasn’t telling my own twin, or my older sister, that I could kill dragons without apparent effort. It wasn’t like I feared them using it against me. But then I hadn’t taught them how to bend reality either, and just will themselves somewhere. Maybe some things are just too dangerous without the preceding steps being discovered.

  Plus, it seemed I volunteered deep inside myself once I learned the truth of things. I had to help; I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t. My only fear was if it went on too long, would I stay myself.

  “I’ll be careful. The protections are pretty strong there, and the time dilation even greater. I won’t get cocky about it, but it isn’t nearly as dangerous as fighting them on our own world. I’ll be careful, but I won’t let them face it on their own. Besides, that was the plan, stop them on magic world so they don’t ever come here again. I just wasn’t completely on board with it until now.”

  My mother frowned but didn’t say anything, maybe she felt my indecision.

  Dawn asked, “You read the whole thing in two days?”

  I grinned, “Yeah, it was intense. It took an hour and a half each of the last two nights, so about three years subjective.”

  We talked about other stuff then. Both Dawn and Amber were doing well with their lovers and love life. I was too, I think. It was crazy though that I’d thought Jim the most stable, and now that was turned around. I was pretty sure Tammy was in it for the long haul, at least for now anyway. Jim took off on me for the weekend with nothing but a text message. I wasn’t really worried about it, but it did show his priorities.

  I was changing though, and I wasn’t sure how much longer staying in a formal school would be attractive. Since I wanted to do research, that would essentially mean I’d be alone unless I had a real career in something, and did the research on the side. I just wasn’t sure what direction I’d take, but I had time, over a year before I got my doctorates in math and science, and I wasn’t going to quit before that happened.

  Maybe it was just Tammy leaving school soon that forced me question my attendance there. My best friend Dina would be leaving school next year as well, the same time I got my doctorates. I had accumulated a lot of knowledge and power over the last seven years, maybe it would just be time to slow that down and do something else for a while after this next year.

  After dessert we broke up, each having something to do. There weren’t any lazy people in my family. I decided I did want to hang with Dina, and I wasn’t sure what if anything I should tell to Maggie, so I figured I’d take a break from the world until it was attacked again. I’d half expected it to happen again by now, but the surviving dragons would have reported a witch from Earth helping that village.

  That might make them talk about things before attacking again. I reminded myself dragons could argue for weeks about the color of the sky.

  I did have to feed though, so I popped by a bar in NY, I was in jeans and a clingy t-shirt, so clubs were out. But a nice big sports bar with lots of drunk men would work just fine. I skimmed the place for lust as I swayed past tables, generating even more until I was full of magic, along with my crystals. It didn’t take long as I hadn’t used that much magic today, and I was in magic world last night.

  I picked a likely guy sitting at the bar alone. Five minutes later in the back alley I was wiping off the little bit of his seed that had escaped my mouth, and sucked it off my finger with a soft sensual moan of approval while looking up into his eyes through my eyelashes. I couldn’t help myself, the aftereffects of my own orgasm made me playful and more than a bit naughty. The guy looked down at me in amazement, and couldn’t quite believe what just happened to him.

  I smiled as I stood back up. He asked for my number, but I just winked and left. I was sure he was a nice guy, and I did get good vibes from him. It was one of the reasons I’d picked him to take care of my physical needs after feeding. But it was just a passing moment of pleasure, and I’d left him satisfied, he’d have to be content with that… I certainly was.

  Chapter 11

  I appeared right in front of Dina’s door. I raised my hand to knock and heard a loud male voice that sounded like Jeremy. Perhaps I should have texted her first, or called. That… really was the best idea I thought, as I heard her screaming back at him. I popped into an alley next to the coffee shop, it was still open for a few minutes being almost nine.

  I squeezed in and ordered a frozen chocolate coffee with whip cream, and then got out my phone and sent a text message.

  “You still free tonight?”

  I sucked down the frozen delight that is coffee and instantly got one of those frozen headaches, which proves I can be as much of an idiot as anyone else. I stuck my tongue out at a blonde woman I knew from somewhere, though I couldn’t quite figure out where, as she looked at me in amusement while I held my head.

  I slowly drank the rest of the coffee over the next ten minutes; there’d been no reply on my phone. I sighed, she must still be fighting. I frowned down at it, as if that would help, and then the magic world alarm went off. Twice in quick succession. I growled and put up all the myriad shields and decided to be at the first set of coordinates.

  I appeared in the middle of the woods and looked up. Nothing was there. Maybe I should have appeared at the closest village to those coordinates instead? I pushed out my aura in all directions and found them, then raced that way, it was only about a hundred yards. I looked up from the tree line and immediately identified the dragons’ response to my presence in yesterday’s fight.

  There were thirty of them, but that wasn’t the worst of it. There were two gold dragons and three silvers that were not as slow as they should have been. They weren’t exactly fast, but definitely not as glacial as I’d been expecting. They were gliding around at a good clip at any rate. They must be using some spell to enhance their speed.

  Damn it, I wanted to stop the war, not escalate it. Naïve of me I suppose.

  Nothing for it, I nailed ten of them, including four of the five quicker ones, before they reacted to my presence. I’d prefer to take out all the quick ones, but if I took out all the casters they’d be stuck here unable to open a gate, and I didn’t want that at all.

  Oh crap, I’m an idiot and not a general or master planner, but I realized at that moment I could just send them back myself. I ducked behind a tree, which pretty much exploded and threw me far back into the trees when the gold’s fire breath hit. I groaned at my stupidity for standing in one spot and decided to be fifty feet over to the left behind another tree. Then I stood up. I didn’t want to take a hit like that again, so I took out the gold. Then I started to send the rest back by piercing their shields, stunning them, then moving them to their world.

  The rest were moving too slow to react well, but I still moved around, not running though. That wouldn’t help all that much and would be like waving a red flag at a bull. Instead I kept deciding to be between fifty and a hundred feet in a randomly decided direction every two or three dragons. They came a little close to hitting me anyway a couple of times, but didn’t manage it again.

  I put out any fires as quickly as I could. There was a second group to stop.

  I went to the second site and followed suit, this time not hesitating before I killed all the silver and gold dragons, and then sent the rest back, again while popping in and out of the area at random. Doing that could be disorienting, but with the time dilation I always recovered a few seconds faster than they spotted my new position.

  I wondered what kind of statement I’d just made, kill the leaders and spare the troops. Had that been a mistake? I stood there a moment and let all my magics recharge to full and then reappeared near the coffee shop.

  I was also worried, how would they adjust next time. A hundred? A thousand? There were certainly enough dragons over there to do that, an estimated
fifty thousand or so, on their world. I… really didn’t know what to do. I was doing pretty well so far just winging it, but eventually I’d be overwhelmed, and I just knew there had to be a better way.

  Although I had no clue what that better way would look like.

  I needed to hit the library and study war… that, or talk to someone who knew war, was sneaky, underhanded, and knew how to do whatever it took to win. Someone ethically challenged that wouldn’t hesitate to lie, steal, or kill to be victorious. I snickered at myself. I needed to talk to dad, just not right now. I had my priorities after all.

  That probably sounds bad, putting Dina in front of protecting a whole world. But I was fairly sure I had at least a couple of days before the next attack, and I wasn’t going to solve this overnight no matter what I did.

  I checked my phone, still no text from Dina. The worried feeling overrode the not wanting to be nosy feeling and I moved to my bedroom. I stood there feeling guilty and finishing off the coffee still in my hand, but it was quiet. I used my aura, and I could only sense one person in there, quite distraught.

  Crap.

  I walked out of my front door and went to knock on hers. I heard her stomp to the door, which she ripped open with an angry look on her face. I might have taken a step back, dragons… not a problem, but angry Dina was scary.

  When she saw me though, her anger just deflated and she turned and walked back toward her kitchen leaving the door open. I bravely walked through said door, and closed it behind me before I followed her into the depths of her apartment.

  Her voice was strained, “Sorry I didn’t answer your text. When my phone went off Jeremy… well take a look,” she pointed at a pile of plastic on her kitchen table which vaguely looked like a phone.