Eliza’s final conflict comes from within her own home.
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{{ How the fuck can this be happening?!? }} Eliza shouted through the telepathic link. {{ I’ve only been on Terra for four hours! How can I have pissed someone off already?!? }}
{{ It’s your natural charm, }} Thug thought. The troll’s mind always sounded so clear compared to his normal guttural language. {{ I’ve got the back door covered, }} he sent as he engaged his natural cloaking mechanism.
{{ Terillia, do you see anything? }} Eliza thought, looking out the front window. She had come all the way home to Terra from Earth to see if she could help her father, who she wasn’t even able to speak to civilly, and she and her band had been attacked before they had even settled in at her parent’s palatial estate. She thought back to when her life was simple. She had been a vampire working as a high-priced security agent on Earth. But then the dimensional portal between worlds had been closed by a radical group of humans known as the Purity who wanted to keep the Terran and human races separated. Eliza and her crew had fought for a year, but had finally managed to help get the portal open again using one of eight “Living Jewels” known as The Dragon’s Breath, but it had come at a price. She had lost a friend, her tech-guy Wyrm had lost an arm, her girlfriend had been tortured and then both she and Veronica had been transformed into an entirely new species called Hybrids by another Living Jewel called the Alchemist’s dream. And after finding her way back home, she discovered that Terra had been dealing with its own separatist group called the Swords of Cleansing. But that hadn’t been Eliza’s primary concern. Instead, it was the somewhat cold response she got from her own father, the Security Director for the Southern Continent. But despite their differences, she had brought her entire crew of seven humans, two trolls, two Hybrids and a succubus back to Terra so she could help someone who could barely tolerate Eliza’s presence.
‘Maybe things were never simple,’ Eliza thought to herself.
Terillia had jumped out of a tower window and taken to the sky. Succubae had incredible vision, easily better than any of the other sentient species and they could see just as well at night as during the daylight. She scanned the grounds of the estate. {{ You have got four on the street. Looks like they’re keeping watch. Looks like another half-dozen moving through the yard. And there are two going in the back door. }} As she was looking down, the two intruders going in the back came flying back out the door and landed in crumpled heaps on the turf.
{{ No, they’re not, }} Thug thought.
The rest of the invaders didn’t fare much better. Eliza drew fire from the main group with a series of lightning strikes while Tiny moved into ambush position. A few more poorly placed steps and two more attackers got slammed against the cobblestone walkway in the front yard.
{{ Terillia, what are the guys on the street doing? }}
{{ Nothing, }} the succubus returned. {{ They’re just . . . standing there. They’ve got shield spells up. }}
Eliza didn’t like this at all. Not that she normally liked getting attacked, but this was weird. {{ Just keep your eyes on them, }} she thought.
{{ But I want to . . . }}
{{Terillia, reconnaissance is one of the reasons I hired you, so do it! }} Eliza didn’t like being harsh with the girl, but she didn’t have time to play nice.
{{ Got one, }} said Snake. He and Bear had caught one climbing in a window and broke its neck. Dennis and Allyson also got a double-team in after sneaking out front via another window and pummeling it into submission with garden implements.
‘What the hell . . .’ Eliza thought. It was all too easy. ‘Where’s the magic these guys were using earlier? Why are they so easy to take . . .’ Eliza’s train of thought was cut off as one of the two remaining individuals who had made it onto the grounds saw her behind a hedge wall and started towards her. The person was moving fairly quickly but seemed to be approaching with a lumbering gate. Eliza was a bit baffled, which may have been the reason that she didn’t see the last intruder approaching by using the same hedge she was hiding behind as cover. But Veronica saw, and she bolted out of the front door. Eliza concentrated and absorbed heat from the air around her target then used that heat in a single powerful blast that knocked the thing off its feet. It lay smoldering on the ground, twitching oddly. Then she saw Veronica charging, staring at something that Eliza couldn’t make out. She took a sniff of the air. ‘That’s odd,’ she thought to herself. ‘Nothing. The only thing I smell around her is us. I don’t even smell the bodies . . .’ She took a step back. {{ Veronica what . . . }}
Veronica wasn’t thinking. Suddenly, the buzzing in her head that she had been experiencing from the moment she walked into the Terran dimension had reached a fever pitch. She extended her hands with the firm intention of bludgeoning this threat to her lover with her fists. Veronica normally was a little calmer than she was at the moment, even in a firefight. Part of being an envoy meant keeping her cool. She couldn’t explain why, but she needed to let loose on something.
Then something odd happened. The air between Veronica and her target began to shimmer and ripple, almost as if it were made of water. Then the intruder was blown off his feet, flying fifty feet through the air and becoming embedded in the wall of the coach house.
Despite not being completely out of danger, Eliza just stared at the body. Then she stared at Veronica. The blonde Hybrid appeared a bit glassy eyed but strangely enough, she was smiling.
Veronica felt . . . relief. The buzzing in her head was gone and she felt . . . pure. “God, I needed that!” she muttered to the empty air in front of her. Then she collapsed face first on the ground.
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A little while later . . .
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Veronica felt well rested when she finally awoke. She was lying on a large sofa in one of the estate’s social chambers. Everyone from the team was standing around looking at her. Most of them looked confused, Eliza looked relieved when she saw Veronica awake, and Vicky just looked miffed.
{{ Hey . . . hey guys, }} she group-thought. {{ Did we win? And thank goodness that fucking buzzing sound went away, }} she mumbled.
{{ What buzzing sound? }} Eliza started.
{{ When did you learn to do magic? }} Vicky thought.
Suddenly, the telepathic teleconference was a mass of chitter chatter that was almost overwhelming. The excess mental noise made Veronica realize that her brain was . . . sensitive.
{{ QUIET! }} she shouted. {{ What the hell happened? }}
Eliza sat down next to her and offered her some hot tea-like beverage. {{ You don’t remember? You let loose a magic surge that pretty much obliterated one of those things. Sweetie, Vicky is right. Apparently, you’re a bit of a sorceress now. }}
Veronica just stared.
Eliza smiled slightly. {{ I guess when we got combined, you became my equal in EVERY way. }}
{{ That’s not possible, is it? }} Veronica was almost at a loss for what to think. {{ I thought you had to train for years . . . are you sure it was . . . Can I have something stronger to drink? }}
{{ Not a good idea. You’re power is very raw right now, so you’ll need to keep your wits about you to control it. As for training, we go to the academies to learn to channel our energy and understand the rules of the world. No one knows why some people have magical power or why some have more than others. But you’ve got it and you’ve got it in spades. }}
Veronica tried to let that sink in. Eliza assured her that now that the more wizened spell caster knew what was going on, she could help stop Veronica from hurting herself. The buzzing that Veronica had been hearing was a build up of magical energy that was agitated by all the emotional and physical turmoil she had undergone. Most sorcerers and sorceresses vented such energy harmlessly, as easily as most humans breathed. It was the first thing anyone with the gift was taught. Veronica tried turning the conversation to something else: the fight.
{{ Fucking automatons, }} Eliza thought, glancing at Terillia.
The succubus looked concerned. {{ Automatons are golems . . . magical constructs made of whatever material the caster has available. They are fairly mindless, only able to perform very basic commands or ‘programs.’ They can be dangerous since they have no concept of self-preservation, but they do not respond well to anything outside their programs. But they do require a great deal of skill to animate. It was a tool developed by the gargoyles to use against the succubus in the Great War for Heaven a millennium ago. }}
{{ That doesn’t sound like a particularly potent weapon against a group like this, }} Vicky thought.
{{ It wasn’t a weapon, }} Boomer interjected. {{ It was a straw-man. }} When Vicky looked confused, he continued. {{ It’s kind of like a straw-man argument . . . something weak that is thrown out there just to see how strong the response is. That wasn’t an attack, it was an intelligence gathering operation, and maybe a warning. }}
Terillia nodded. {{ The men on the street were simply there to cast the fireballs and observe our responses. They vanished after you obliterated their last drone. }}
{{ Any chance they’ll be back? }} Veronica asked.