2025-04-30 21:13:19“I don’t understand! You’re breaking up with me?” Melindra sobbed, her eyes gushing forth such a deluge of tears that George knew that his now ex-girlfriend must have magically smudge-proof make-up, which made sense, since her family was just as affluent as his.
The scene that George had chosen to break the bad news to Melindra was her family’s private garden. While he had known that breaking up with the only girl he’d ever kissed in his young life would be devastating for her, he loved her, so he didn’t want it to be extra devastating for her in any way. By choosing her parents’ garden, Melindra didn’t have to receive the news in public in front of any of their peers, nor did she have to receive it in front of any of her family members. It was just the two of them. She would have a chance to compose herself, to decide when to tell who in her life, her parents, her friends, everyone, and how to tell them.
George Fothergill and Melindra Will-O-Wisp had been sweethearts since they had been little. Since the Fothergills and the Will-O-Wisps were each among the social elite of Sutter’s Village (each family had ancestors among the town founders), the pairing had been encouraged by their elders. Indeed, such a pairing would have been the kind that class conscious members of the Society of Sorcerers Born sought out for their children anyway. Both families were wealthy, with strong political connections, and consistently produced offspring with the Gifting of Magic. The fact that these two young people sincerely liked each other from a young age meant that it would save the adults around them the trouble of matchmaking for a generation.
“I’ll be gone for several years,” George explained again. He had already told Mel the version of his story that he had agreed with his father to tell everyone so that no one ever found out that George had very little of the Gifting of Magic, barely any at all. Mel kept weeping and begging and persisting however, forcing the devastated young man to repeat the details over and over, sounding to himself as if he were trying to convince himself. George shoved his own feelings down far inside his heart. He knew that he would have his own private time to cry later. Right at that moment, he knew that what Mel needed was for him to be strong. If both of them broke down, instead of just her, then there would be a real mess. If George allowed himself to get emotional and cry, he might tell her the truth, the truth that he had no magic, that he was not worthy of her, that if they ever had children, those children might be born without the Gifting of Magic.
“My uncle needs help running his herbalist shop in Taalvora. I’ll continue my mage studies there.”
Melindra snuffled back some of her sobbing to control herself enough to speak. “Taalvora isn’t that far. We could afford for you to come have teleportation visits with me sometimes. And, eventually, you’d be able to use teleportation magic on your own, and so could I. Couples have long-distance relationships all the time. Well, maybe not all the time, but enough. We don’t have to break up.”
Mel’s hands were wet with her tears. She pushed back her unruly blonde hair, streaking it wet with her tears. She gazed at him with her moist blue eyes. George wanted very much to touch her hair. To put it back in place for her, but he knew that if he did, he was only making this harder for both of them.
What she said about teleportation visits was true, of course. It was also true that sometimes long-distance couples did indeed make it through times of separation and go on to get married. But how could he tell her that he, George Fothergill, jr., descended from a long line of powerful Fothergills, would never use teleportation magic because he didn’t possess even enough of the Gifting of Magic to be accepted into any mage college at all, even a lesser one than Praxis.
He knew what teleportation felt like, of course, because he had traveled that way many times on family trips. But those teleportations had been powered by his father’s magic or his mother’s magic, not his. He would never know what it felt like to wield such magic himself. Never.
He and Mel were seated at a beautifully ornately designed metal bench, painted white, in a secluded alcove in the garden. This was the exact spot where the couple had shared their first kiss, the first kiss for either of them as individuals. In desperation, Mel grabbed onto his hands. George couldn’t look her in the face. He looked away.
His gaze found the colorful fluttering of a beautiful blue and yellow butterfly as it alighted upon one of the magical carnivorous flowers the Will-O-Wisp family kept in their garden. George knew what would happen, but he couldn’t turn his gaze away. For one, eternally frozen second of time, a fleeting moment of beauty, the butterfly majestically rested on the orangish-pink flower. That moment would have made a beautiful painting. As a painting, that moment could be made to last forever, the beauty of the butterfly could live forever. But…
Vrusssh! Faster than George could blink, the carnivorous Bug Muncher flower had taken its meal. It remained closed for about three seconds, then opened. The scene in the garden looked as before, except that the butterfly, the beauty of the moment, was gone. George disengaged his hands from Melindra’s, huskily said, “I’m sorry”, rose from the bench, and walked away as her small frame behind him was wracked with sobs.
It’s begun, George thought. I’ve begun to lose everything.
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Ch. 75 Where the Sea Sings to the Fire
The morning of George’s sixteenth birthday arrived. He was bathing in a pool soon after sunrise when a familiar voice called to him from the bushes on shore. “Hey, kid!” “Yörg!” The Staff of Xee carefully looked around, right and left, before levitating itself, slowly drifting out of the concealing jungle undergrowth and hovering over the water near George. Suddenly, the staff disappeared. “Yörg! You just got here! What’s the deal?” “I’d tell ya to keep your britches on, but you’re not wearing any.” Yörg’s voice came from the same space he’d disappeared from. “I turned invisible because you don’t need to be seen with me. In case you hadn’t figured it out, this place is hostile to magic-users.” “Yeah. It kind of is. A lot of bitterness toward the Society here.” “Well with me being invisible, if you keep your voice down, it’ll just seem like you talk to yourself when you bathe. A lot of folks do that. You’re going to stay around here awhile, aren’t ya? These folks are your peopl
Ch. 74 Lunch with Cynthia
Maverick did indeed have the power left to make it to Beacon City, just barely. The scientist technicians there were able to improvise something that would act as an adapter between their power systems and Maverick’s, so that he could begin to charge up again. Charging all the way up from zero percent would take about eight hours, giving George just that long to figure out how he and Stingray were going to function on Science Island while maintaining the cover stories they’d concocted for themselves. If they wanted to leave, George could probably call Yörg who would brag about being able to take them ‘anywhere in the multiverse’. But George didn’t want that to be necessary. Nereia had had the AI sub bring them here for a reason. It couldn’t be a coincidence that this was an anti-Society science colony. He remembered what the Oracle had said in her farewell letter about “finding a family”. Were these people that family? “They will not look like a family. They will not sound like on
Ch. 73 What Do You Do With a Powered-Down Warbot Early in the Morning?
Milton stepped forward. “I’m very sorry to interrupt, Chemistry Chair, but there is a warbot on Shark Man Beach in what appears to be a powered down state. I have two men guarding it and I have just confirmed with them over comlink that it has not reactivated or moved.” George realized he would have to learn the origins of the science colonists’ animosity for elves some other time. Maverick would be a momentous topic. “A warbot!” The Biology Chair exclaimed. “Are you mad? You have us here fraternizing with elves and elf-lovers while a warbot occupies our shores?” George decided to step in again to exert some influence on the direction things were going. He didn’t like the way the Biology Chair saw things. It reminded George too much of the pomposity of many of the mages in the Society. “The golem that this man Milton refers to as a robot, was cargo aboard my ship before it went down. Our captain wanted to take it to Siren Island, believing it would be immune to siren charms.” Geo
Ch. 72 Beacon City
Even though the Sun was rising, clearly not everyone in Beacon City on Science Island was used to getting up with it. George and Stingray were forced to wait while some of the Science Committee were summoned, and, when the members that took the longest arrived, they looked sleepy.As far as looks went, however, the most unpleasant ones were reserved for Stingray. George thought the humans here on Science Island were looking at his orca calling friend far worse than he and his friends had looked at him when he’d been rescued from a kraken in the ocean. That day, the sea elves had looked at George with a passive contempt for terakva and ambergris. The Science Islanders weren’t looking at Stingray with passive contempt, however. Their looks at him were easily described as active hatred, as if Stingray himself had done something to each of them personally.The assembled humans of Science Island looked like their lands of origin were diverse and widespread. This made sense, since they had
Ch. 71 Science Island
Though it was dark, the islanders had plenty of torches and there was a well-established path through the trees. Two men had come up to Stingray with rope, as if to tie him up. The man who’d already questioned them, shook his head and waved them away. “Are you kidding?” One of them asked. “He apparently saved the human from drowning. Let’s not take him prisoner…yet.” Both of the men with rope looked at their superior as if he was crazy, but they left Stingray alone, if begrudgingly. As they walked, George noticed that at any given time, at least two guns were pointed at Stingray, but no one was covering George anymore. The man who was apparently their liaison strode next to George. He introduced himself as Milton. He didn’t clarify whether Milton was a first name or a surname. “Do you know where your ship acquired that golem cargo or where they were delivering it to?” George spun as much truth as possible into his story, to make it all the more believable and have the least num
Ch. 70 Guns and Shark People
Once again, George thought of calling Yörg, but he still waited, thinking the irrepressible staff might draw fire at them, either intentionally or unintentionally. Of the four of them that were there without Yörg, George and Stingray were prone and not the targets of bullets that were flying well above them. Starstorm had opted to sleep in his pocket dimension, saying something about air conditioning on humid nights. Maverick, however, when he had powered down, had been sitting. In the dark, in the moonlight, his hulking form looked like a statue of some kind. It drew some fire. George could see sparks on Maverick’s exterior when bullets struck him. He didn’t think those rounds had any penetrative power against Mav’s armoring, but he’d want to do a visual inspection with adequate light to be sure. He was glad that Maverick’s powered down rest hadn’t included a pre-set condition upon which to auto-wake, such as being attacked. Maverick would need to be manually reactivated. Even if h
Ch. 69 A Night on the Beach
With Maverick and Stingray in the water, and George and Starstorm in an orange rubber life raft (a color that Starstorm felt compelled to voice as far less pretty and appealing than his own bright yellow life raft), they got themselves to the beach as quickly as possible. The Untamed Seas were in the tropics, so the night was warm. They didn’t think they’d need a fire for warmth. They had taken the liberty of assuming that it was ok to “borrow” some of the sub’s dried military rations as “complimentary”.(“After all, how’s it gonna stop us?” Starstorm had asked. George had replied, “Just hurry up. Let’s not find out.”)The beach extended about one hundred fifty yards inland. Beyond that was a treeline that would be better explored in daylight. George thought, too late, of course, that he should have thought to ask the sub’s AI how many hours it would be until daylight.Maverick powered down to conserve what little energy he had left. He had not recharged since before his scheduled fig
Ch. 68 Nereia's Letter
“Where are we going, Pilot?” George asked the AI. It was morning, an honest-to-goodness morning. The sub was cruising at a shallow depth that was sunlit. For George to wake up from a long sleep and see sunlight through the sub’s front viewport was a subtle, yet powerful reminder for George that Wonderdome was gone. Wonderdome had had the Three Periods: Work, Family, and Sleep. The surface world had day and night. “We are headed to an island in what surface world maps refer to as the Untamed Seas.” “Why? What’s there?” “My files do not contain that information. I apologize for any inconvenience that may cause.” Well, that’s a dead end, George thought. “Maybe this will help,” said Stingray as he rose from his own bunk area and stepped over to the front viewport with George. He brought with him a scroll made from Wonderdomian sea grass paper. “Nereia made me promise to give it to you. She had already written it out before I arrived. She called me to her deathbed.” “Deathbed?” “W
Ch. 67 Beyond Wonderdome
George had always known the dome was not glass. It was a magical see-through metal. So, when a piece of it broke off the main body of the dome, it did so with a metallic groan, as metal bending and snapping rather than glass shattering and breaking. The piece that broke off and fell first was the size of several city blocks combined. It fell with enough force to crush buildings beneath it and to vibrate the very earth under the city. Screams filled the air as the ocean, held back for so long, sought to reclaim the volume of the dome. At first, water rushed in through the original hole opened by the twin krakens’ relentless battering for several long moments, but then, with its original structural strength so greatly compromised, the edges of the hole started to bend inward under the unimaginable pressure. As the edges of the hole lost their resilience against the impossible pressure, the hole widened, letting in even more water, accelerating the dome’s impending, eventual total colla
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