NOVEL NEXT Sabbatical – Chapter 214: For All to See
Aperio hummed to herself as she gently placed more runes into the framework of the System. It was currently more of a mild distraction as she was mainly focusing on a confrontation between a few uniformed mortals armed with guns and a single one wielding magic. She would not intervene as the awakened had not started the fight; quite the opposite in fact, as he was probably fighting for his life.
I doubt he is immune to bullets quite yet, Aperio thought to herself as various constructs made from the very earth he stood on appeared around him. His magic sure works, though.
For a moment, the All-Mother considered going there to observe the fight in person, but she doubted her presence there would go over well.
"Found something interesting?" Caethya asked, looking up at Aperio. "You seem unusually focused."
"People are currently discovering that magic exists," Aperio replied. "And I do not mean the ones that got Classes."
"Can you show me?"
The All-Mother gave a nod and showed her love what she saw, omitting only a few details from her perception that she knew still gave Caethya headaches.
"Oh," her love said, blinking at the vision Aperio was showing her. "That's going to be in the news." Her love looked around the hotel room they had rented. "Does the magical motel not have a TV? Adam and the others seemed quite fond of the thing as it lets you see basically all you want, when you want."
"I think it does," the All-Mother replied, a wave of her hand opening one of the many cabinets in question. Though they had returned to their room to relax a little, that now seemed less than likely. "I am pretty sure that is what you are looking for. Going by how many of the mortals use it, you should use the thing next to it. A 'remote', apparently." She tilted her head slightly as she watched Caethya squint at the device. "But why would you use that if I am already providing a much better view?"
"I want to see the reaction of the other mortals to all of this," Caethya said. "I doubt you will stop their fight and this is bound to be interesting. Plus," she continued, finally finding the correct buttons to not only turn it on but also switch channels, "I find all of this technology very interesting. Especially their phones! I bet people back home would love to see one of these, especially if it can be reworked to use solely mana for power."
"It is an intriguing little machine," Aperio agreed, setting herself down on the foot of her bed. Her wings flowed off of it, almost hanging on the floor. A touch of her magic was also needed to stop the wooden frame from breaking, but that was par for the course by now. "Most of the things the mortals here invented are, for that matter. I would like to know how they manage to make something so small it is barely bigger than an atom."
Caethya looked at Aperio for a moment before her eyes wandered to the little device in her hand and she shook her head. "I'm not even going to ask," she said, stopping her browsing as she reached a channel that had news right in the name. "Looks like they already noticed!"
The All-Mother shifted her gaze towards the screen, blinking her eyes a few times as she focused on it a little more to turn it into something watchable and not a slide show. It was a weird feeling to simultaneously see the scene for herself and watch the recording of it. For a brief moment she considered teleporting herself to the edge of what the camera could see and offer the people of Earth a small wave, but in the end, she decided against it.
It might be fun, but in the end it would only cause more chaos. Something they surely will have enough of after this. Aperio did not know how the governments on Earth worked, but after everything Adam had told her, she doubted that they would be happy with what were essentially super-powered Humans walking around freely.
Thinking of the mortal mage had seemingly summoned him, as he was about to knock on their door. Aperio simply opened it with a thought, interrupting the motion of Adam's hand. "Come in," she said and gestured towards the TV. "I assume you are here because of this."
"Of course I am," Adam replied, and as he stepped inside and the door closed behind him before he made a move to touch it. "I had thought you wanted to prevent this!"
"No?" Aperio tilted her head ever-so-slightly. "I said I would prevent them from abusing their new powers. This one is defending himself; very much a justified use of his new abilities."
"Do you know who started the fight?"
"Not him," the All-Mother replied with a wing-assisted shrug. "That is all that matters to me."
"Quiet," Caethya said. "They got more people."
"The uniformed ones have people in the buildings surrounding the earth mage," Aperio added, a thought causing various projections of what she saw to pop up next to the TV itself. "Maybe I should intervene after all?"
"If you do, you shouldn't show yourself," her love said as she stole a glance at the All-Mother. "Unless you want to become known as Earth's first hero?"
"Maybe. Being first seems to be my thing."
To go there would be as trivial as it would be to stop them, but she knew that her every action would be scrutinised by the people of Earth, given weight and meaning in ways she could not anticipate, and interpreted in ways she might possibly dislike. Despite all of that, she did still want to make an appearance.
"I think I will do it," she eventually said. "I want to, at least; though I am not even sure why."
"Because it seems like fun!" Caethya smiled at Aperio. "You really haven't done much for yourself since you returned, so why not do this and help some people out. You get to enjoy yourself, and stop these mortals from potentially killing one another. A win-win, as they say."
"And the entire world would know that some winged Elf woman can just appear anywhere and do what she wants," Adam said, crossing his arms. "That's a good way to get the attention of people you don't want in your life."
"And what will they do if I simply remove them from my life?" Aperio asked with a slight tilt of her head. "I am not scared of your people, Adam, and I have no issue defending myself or my friends." She remained quiet for a moment before she let out a long sigh. "I am also tired of hiding myself. It only seems to work as long as I do not interact with other people, as you mortals always seem to know that I am different. I am sure that would still be the case if I appeared as a completely normal-looking mortal."
"It would be," Caethya agreed. "You simply don't act like a mortal. Well, sometimes you do, but those actions are based on your time as one and don't really reflect how people live now." She hesitated for a moment, simply looking at Aperio. "The times you act normally for you, you teleport around and make things other people cannot begin to conceive of, all by simply wanting to do it.
"Strong mortals make some things appear effortless, sure," her love continued, "but it's not quite the same as when you do it. Whenever magic is involved in any way, you do it in a manner that is hard to describe. All I can say is that it feels… primal, in a sense. Like you are manipulating the very idea of the world we live in."
The All-Mother tilted her head to the other side. "That is because I do. I bend reality to my will to become what I want it to be." She hesitated for a moment, shifting a little on the end of the bed. "But that is how all magic works: you exchange the potential of your mana to enact your will upon the fabric of my creation. The methods vary, but the results are the same. Mana is exchanged in order to shift reality closer towards that which you desire. This concept was known even to the lowest slave in the Empire, and I had thought it ubiquitous enough to not have been forgotten."
Adam did not reply, instead only shifting his gaze between Aperio and Caethya. The Demigoddess, on the other hand, tapped at her chin in thought. Her love remained quiet for a moment longer before she shrugged. "It's never been explained quite that bluntly, but I guess what I was taught is close enough." She smiled at Aperio. "In any case, it does not matter. I will support whatever decision you make. If you want them to see you, I will deal with whatever sort of increased attention we will get."
Aperio gave a nod at the words, somehow feeling a lot lighter and warmer than before her love had spoken. She shifted her gaze towards Adam, the mortal mage obviously wanting to say something but not quite sure how he should do so.
"At least make a small attempt at hiding yourself," he eventually said. "That might keep some people from looking into you too much."
"We shall see," the All-Mother replied, carefully standing up from the bed and stretching herself. The motion was in no way needed, but it still felt good. "I will be back shortly, then."
///
Jacob stared at the TV, ignoring the anchors discussing how the current encounter came to be and how it was even possible that the man confronting the police was achieving the feats caught on camera. He knew what the man was doing. What he didn't know was how he would get out of that situation.
As far as he could tell, there was no way out besides burrowing down and he wasn't sure if the man could do that. He probably could, but Jacob didn't know how flexible Earth magic was when compared to his fire abilities. He could personally bend his powers in many creative ways that went far past the mere conjuring of flames and yet, they still all relied on that skill.
The question seemed to answer itself as black feathers began gently gliding down between the police and the unknown man. Their appearance gave both sides pause, and even the reporters themselves grew quiet as the first feathers touched the ground and simply disappeared. A few moments later reality seemed to turn in on itself, revealing an abyss of pure black for a brief instant before a large, winged woman stepped out of the apparent portal.
Despite the fact that the cameras all focused on her, Jacob could not really make out much more than her above-average height, the pallor of her skin, and the fact that she was wearing a dress. No matter how hard he tried, he could not focus on her face, his eyes seemingly refusing to see what he should be able to. Of course, he could also see the wings, the feathered appendages filling out basically the entire width of the street when she spread them briefly.
The woman folded the extra limbs behind her back and simply regarded the uniformed officers for a moment. The slight breeze flowing down the street caused her silver hair to sway gently, making the entire scene seem more like something out of a movie than an active news broadcast. Indeed, the colours seemed to be more... saturated, somehow. Livelier. In fact, the only thing that actually felt like reality were the news anchors, who had by now collected themselves enough to actively theorize on what was happening.
On the ground, the situation looked a little different as the police had begun shouting at the woman. She did not seem to mind them, not listening even as most of their weapons shifted from the man to her.
A wave of her hand showed why. The makeshift fortress the Earth-bending man had made simply vanished, the street back in perfect health, while the weapons the officers held simply disappeared. She clapped her hands once, the motion causing more feathers to appear and drift towards the ground. Every time one hit the street another uniformed person appeared, looking very confused as to why they were now out in the open.
She said something, her voice curiously inaudible given that everything else that was happening could be heard in perfect clarity, and motioned towards the man with a wing. When one of the officers began to answer, she held a finger in front of her mouth, causing the man to quiet down. She offered him a small smile, lowered her hand and continued talking.
While Jacob could not hear her — and even if he could read lips, hers weren't visible enough — he was still sure that she was explaining something to both parties involved, shrugging every now and then when one of the bystanders was allowed to ask a question.
He tuned out the chatter of the anchors as he focused more on the screen, trying to make out further details of the woman, but the more he tried, the more hazy her form seemed to grow; shrouding itself in a silver-blue mist. Trying to understand how that worked was likely a lesson in futility. Whoever this mystery woman was, she was obviously much more in control of her powers than he was. Maybe she got them earlier?
The real question was how much earlier she had gotten her powers, and to what extent they had changed her. Given the wings, the height, and just her overall build, she certainly no longer looked Human. But that, too, could be merely a trick of the mind.
Jacob was taking from his pondering as the scene on his TV was replaced by a series of pictures of the winged woman. Apparently these ones, which were much more view-able and clear, had been taken by various people who had been in Riverburg — a city on the west coast — for a convention that had started about a week ago.
The most pertinent thing, however, was that the mystery woman was not at all obscured in the pictures. None seemed to be exactly in focus, and nobody was able to supply a name to go with the face, but they were proof enough to Jacob that, yes, the person in question was most certainly no longer Human. Her long pointed ears and wings made that clear as day. "Now, where is this Riverburg," Jacob mumbled to himself, pulling up a map on his phone.
He had a suspicion that it was there that the first people had awakened to magic, and if he was correct he would love to go there in person. The only potential issue was that the country was large, and his funds limited. If he could drive there in a day or two, that would be fine. If he could only get there by plane, it would be beyond his means. Luckily, he was located in a fairly central place on the west coast, and the news had marked the city as Riverburg, Oregon. It should theoretically be close enough. Shouldn't be too many cities with a name like that there, either…
He found it in short order, located barely a four hour drive from his home. Can just tell mother I'm visiting Ben, Jacob thought to himself as he locked his phone. When he looked back to the TV, it was just in time to see the woman and the earth mage vanish, leaving behind only a few feathers that disappeared shortly thereafter.
"This is going to be chaos," was all he could say on the matter with a shake of his head. Magic, superpowers — or whatever else you wanted to call it — on Earth had been the subject of many stories, and all of them had some form of villain and hero arising that simply dominated the rest. "Pretty sure we just saw the hero."
He pushed himself off of his bed and began throwing some clothes into his gym bag. He had a weird city to visit, and a potential hero to find. Maybe she could tell him what, exactly, was happening. Or maybe she was, as he expected for someone with so much power, nothing more than a dick.
