Contractor (8 page)

nodded to him. "The further you are from

your body, the worse that grows. If you kept

going, everything would become a solid blur.

There’s a certain risk of getting lost, so stay

conservative when you scry. There’s no time

limit, and it’s not very taxing, but you still

need to eat and drink at some point."

"…what happens if I didn’t come back

to my body?"

"It would seem as though you’d fallen

into a permanent coma. But don’t worry

about it. As your power grows, you’ll see

further at a glance. You won’t have to

physically move your spirit."

"I still have to sit still though, right?"

"Yes." Xik waved a few fingers in a

circle. "Three dimensional movement creates

ripples in the energetic continuum which

obscure the senses."

"…oh yeah, right. Sure. Energetic

continuum."

"Sorry. If you moved, you’d just see

static, so when you scry, keep still. There are

ways around this, but supposing I could even

get you one, the inertialess systems we have

installed on our ships are as large as your

house. Not very practical for personal use."

Daniel’s mind spun, but he filed away

the idea of interdimensional space ships in

the back of his head. More pressing matters

were at hand. "So what kind of drawbacks

does magic have? Just in general?"

"It will tire you just like any other task,"

Xik said. "Consider it a muscle. Stronger

people can do more without as much strain.

You’ll have to find your limits on your own.

Be sure to practice regularly."

"Ok. So." Daniel slapped his hands on

his knees. "Vorid. Killing."

"Spawn are easy to destroy, even as

weak as you are now," Xik said. Daniel was

a bit miffed at that comment, but he kept his

mouth shut. "First we need to find out what

your talent is. A moment." Xik closed his

eyes and murmured something. He waved his

hand, but nothing happened that Daniel could

see. After some silence, he looked up.

"Speed. And a secondary ability, to imbue

objects with durability and force. That goes

beyond their ability to harm Vorid."

"I thought I’d be throwing fireballs or

something."

"An important aspect of magic is

physical enhancement. You can move faster

than the average human. Running speed,

reflexes."

"So I’m the Flash?"

Xik frowned, baffled. "Afraid I’m not

familiar."

"He’s a superhero."

"Superhero?"

"A hero," Daniel said, "only super."

"…how illuminating."

"Don’t worry about it."

Xik cleared his throat. "Your secondary

ability will be useful. Your enchantment can

apply to more or less anything you touch, but

you should work with your hands first. That

will help you get used to manipulating the

energy."

Daniel rubbed his knuckles. "I don’t

really want to touch that thing."

"No time for squeamishness. But don’t

be in a hurry, there’s plenty more

fundamentals."

"Felix doesn’t have the time for this sh -

" Daniel stopped himself, and took a breath.

"The sooner, the better."

"I’ll explain as quickly as possible,"

Xik said. "But this is important, so listen

closely." Daniel leaned forward. "Contractor magic—your powers—are already

undetectable by other magicians. Your soul,

however, can still be detected. That’s going

to be a problem if you’re ever found

somewhere you’re not supposed to be."

"Ok. So what do I do about it?"

"What I’m about to teach you is more

valuable than the strongest attack. Not even

the Vorid have grasped Klide concealment

techniques. To be hidden is to survive."

****

Daniel trod down the stairs and into the

living room the old fashioned way. Felix

was still lounging on the couch. After-school

cartoons blared from the television.

Apparently all the fun upstairs didn’t leak

out. Xik walked next to him, watching.

"Hey Felix," Daniel said.

Felix’s eyes stayed on the TV. "Huh?"

"Stand up for a second." Daniel grabbed

Felix under the shoulders, lifted him up, and

set him on his feet. The Vorid wobbled

slightly. Daniel’s face scrunched up. That

thing was nasty.

"What are you doing?" Felix said. "I’m trying to watch!"

"Hold still. There’s something on your

back."

Daniel drew his fist back and

concentrated. A tendril of force snaked from

his core and out into his hand. The skin of his

forearm and fingers glowed with soft white

light. He punched the Vorid straight on.

It shrieked like a cat thrown into a pool.

A smoking, cracked crater was left on its

spine, harsh and pale against the black. The

tentacles withdrew from Felix and snapped

back into its body like a turtle retreating into

its shell. It leapt off Felix’s back and

skittered across the floor.

"Don’t let it get away!" Xik shouted.

The Vorid made for the front of the

house. Daniel pounded his legs into the

ground, and, in an instant, he’d passed it by.

He swiveled, surprised by his own

speed, but managed to get himself between it

and the door. The Vorid hesitated. Daniel

came down hard with his foot, pushing the

power into his heel. It tried to jump again,

but the bottom of his shoe was faster. He

crushed it like a cockroach.

It twitched once, went still; and then it

started to fall apart. The slimy black body

crumbled to a fine dust.

If they weren’t inside, he’d think a wind

had caught the remains. The pile of crumbs

drifted into the air like dust kicked high on a

hot day—black, volcanic dust. The dark

cloud rushed into Daniel’s chest.

A surge of energy hit him like a rock.

His heart skipped a beat, injected with the

magical equivalent of an adrenaline shot and

five cups of coffee. His fists clenched tight.

It felt good.

Felix turned around and scratched his

head. "Uh…what was that about?"

Daniel straightened and relaxed his

hands. "Nothing. Just messing with you."

Felix made a face and looked back at the

TV. "Aww, I just missed the best part! You

suck!"

"You suck more."

"Your face sucks."

For a moment, Daniel almost responded

with the expected response drilled into him

by a lifetime spent in the American school

system: your mom sucks.

But he couldn’t say that. Not to Felix.

Daniel snapped his fingers and squinted

hard. "You win this time, Fitzgerald. But I’ll

have my revenge!" Felix laughed and

plopped back on the couch. Crisis averted.

"I’m gonna take a walk, ok?" Daniel said.

Felix shrugged. "Ok. See you."

Daniel locked the front door and went

around the edge of his house. He stopped at

the corner near where a few tall shrubs

shielded him from the road. He tightened his

fist and focused. In a moment, the white

power was back, coating his hand like a

glove. The energy waited patiently, waiting

to be released.

He dropped his hand, then gathered the

power into his feet and jumped. White light

burst under his shoes. He leapt into the air at

least as high as he was tall, then fell onto his

butt and rolled over in the grass. He did it

again, this time grabbing the edge of the roof

with his hands. He pulled himself up and

walked around on the tile. He’d never been

up on the roof of his house.

"Having fun?"

Daniel jumped back, then sighed. Xik

had appeared next to him. "Would you stop

doing that?"

"I enjoy your surprise," Xik said. "It’s the only time I can get something out of you."

Daniel stretched his arms. "So did I just

get a ton of strength from that thing?"

"No, not at all. Killing spawn is like

stomping ants. You’ll have to take out quite a

few to feel a significant difference. This is

mostly all what you had inside yourself."

Daniel looked his pinstriped friend up

and down. "I feel like I could sprint a mile.

And do a hundred pushups."

"Right after absorption, you’ll gain a

boost to your stamina, and heal faster, too,"

Xik explained. "Even without magic, your

normal physical abilities will improve.

You’ll probably find you need much less

sleep, if any at all. The night won’t hinder

you—your eyesight will improve to

compensate."

"Sounds convenient." Daniel punched

his fist into his palm. "So. Three days? Now

that I’m a superhuman, think I can take on that

extractor?"

"Absolutely not. You’re not to touch any

more Vorid, not until it’s come and gone."

"What?! Why the hell not?!"

"Because it would swat you like a fly."

Daniel drew back. That was as stern a tone

as Xik had taken with him. "Your brother

was the exception. One missing spawn will

go unnoticed. More, and you’ll draw

attention that will kill you."

It slowly coalesced inside Daniel’s

brain. "…I wait until the extractor passes

through. Then I go on a spawn killing-spree

to increase my strength. A month later, when

it comes back, I kill it then."

"Indeed. And when you kill that one, a

replacement will come. And if you kill that

one, then more."

"Then what’s stopping them from

annihilating me right now?"

"You have once miniscule, flimsy

advantage," Xik said. "Obscurity."

Daniel thought back to his magic lesson.

"You mean concealing my presence, like you

showed me?"

"That will hide you from any scrying

magic users, yes," Xik said. He waved a

hand. "But that’s not really what I was

getting at. The Vorid forces here are on

autopilot. Earth is rather densely populated,

but it’s in a lonely corner of the multiverse,

which is an extremely big place." Xik made

his frog smile. "The Klide keep their main

forces somewhat locked-up, after all.

Meanwhile, to keep expanding, their war

machine invades elsewhere on their behalf."

"…so I’m not even fighting the Vorid,

I’m fighting their robots? What the hell?"

"It all stems from the same magic, and

so you can absorb it," Xik said. "The spawn are biological. The extractors are machines.

Both are just engineered constructs. They

follow programmed instructions resting at

the juncture of magic and technology."

"…so…as long as I’m careful, the real

ones won’t show up, right?"

"Your magicians have dug in their

heels." Xik shrugs. "They have no choice.

Humans are being harvested everywhere. But

noticeable delays in schedule will show up

in their analyses. It won’t be long until they

launch a real attack. In the meantime, your

goal is to cautiously build your strength."

"You mentioned something else—an

overseer."

"I did. Spawns are created and

maintained by extractors. Extractors

themselves are automatons; they can adapt

somewhat to a changing situation, but as you

said, they’re just magical robots. They can’t

really plan ahead. Overseers are the first

actual sentient individual within the Vorid."

"What’s above them?"

"Soul energy is like their currency," Xik

said. "Their overseers are as farmers and are

the majority of their population. Above them

are the nobility, the lords and their families,

the warrior caste. Above them, several

thousand of what you might call princes, who

each command the loyalty of many lower

nobles."

"Who’s the boss?"

"The royal family, led by their king."

Daniel put his hands on his hips. "Are

you serious? Why are the Vorid here, feeding

on us? If they’re so advanced, can’t they do

something else for energy besides suck out

our souls? Invasions sound really

inefficient."

"You’re right, of course," Xik said,

"though you underestimate the amount of

energy in a soul. Like an atom, souls have

huge amounts of potential energy given their

size. But for them, it’s a religious matter."

"…are you joking?"

"Absolutely not," Xik said. "They have a doctrine of continual expansion and

conquest. They’ve consumed all the sentient

life in their home universe and have ventured

beyond it in search of greener pastures. They

consider it their holy mission to reunite all

the magic of the universe, all the souls, back

into one supreme being from whom their king

claims descent. They believe that this act

will activate a magical singularity that will

overcome the natural degradation of entropy

and reset the entire multiverse. Then, the

cycle will repeat. If they don’t do this, they

believe that all useful energy will inevitably

be consumed and everything will languor for

all eternity in total dissociated heat death. In