A Glass Half-full
by Kristin Darken
Prologue
The room was a lot like my high school gym: high ceilings, a
lot of open floor space and a couple dozen people running around in odd
patterns yelling things like "I'm open" or "pass it over
here" all of which echoed and mixed with squeaking tennis shoes to create
a distinctive sound. Like most dreams, however, no matter how much something
reminds you of something else; there are always elements that are at best
surrealistic. In this instance, it wasn't long before I noticed that the
ceiling, floor and all four walls were a polished quartz-like substance. The
more important difference, however, the 'ball' for this particular game was
made of pure energy and touching the ball was not an option.
The rules were simple enough; like dodge ball, the goal was
to avoid being hit. Even the slightest touch and you were 'out.' The ball
seemed to be repelled by the wall material and was not hindered in the least by
gravity. It was moving around the room at a good clip too, though only the
slowest or least agile of the remaining players would have been at risk of
getting hit. Obviously, there was more to this game than I had seen so far.
That was when I noticed that some of the players seemed to
be - a moment of vertigo caused me to stumble, narrowly being missed by the
ball - ignoring the normal laws of physics, gravity in particular. The players
were also able to use the property of the walls that repelled the ball and more
than half of them were flying, floating or generally oriented with a ‘down’
different from my own. With the ability to move in three dimensions, we had
that much less risk of getting knocked out of the game by the bouncing ball.
Of course, that simply meant that there was yet another aspect to the game.
A girl about high school age dived through the air toward
the ball as it bounced off a wall nearby. At the same time as she pushed away
from the wall with her will, the energy manifesting as a nearly visible splash
of Water, she also reached forward and spun around the ball. Again, the
elemental Water manifested visibly, this time causing the ball to accelerate
away from her, almost ninety degrees off its original track. An older guy,
probably a junior or senior in college, pushed a warding of white light out in
front of him but the angle was wrong. He had barely slowed it when the ball hit
him full in the chest and bounced off toward the far corner of the room.
With a quick grin at the girl who’d knocked him out of the
game, the college guy headed toward the wall, passing through it and fading
away. A tension that I hadn’t realized I’d felt drifted away with him. Even
though there probably was some element of competition, of reward or loss, this
was a friendly game. I’d seen too much war in the Dreamworld lately and it
wouldn’t have been the first time that one was hidden in this sort of metaphor.
I was playing a defensive game, almost a passive one, while
I watched the others for a time. Most, it seemed, had a limit to how far they
could reach. Some were using elemental structures, others faith or willpower,
and a couple showed the influence of eastern energy work. These all were fairly
effective for pushing or pulling against the walls, though some were even
limited there and had to stay out of the middle regions. That wasn’t going to
be a problem for me; I didn’t need these walls to be able to fly in the
Dreamworld.
A bounce off the far wall had the ball heading my
direction. I thought about just drifting out of the way, but it was time I
started playing actively. I reached forward, wondering how hard it would be to
manipulate the energy of the ball. To my surprise, however, it didn’t have a
‘slippery’ nature at all. Before it had crossed even halfway to me, I added a
wicked spin to its current pattern and cringed as it nearly corkscrewed its way
to another corner of the room. People scattered, trying to get an understanding
of its new path, and I couldn’t help but grin at the reactions.
I resumed my more passive involvement. I shouldn’t even be
in this game, not for any sense of real competition. These people weren’t
beginners by any means but they weren’t used to the sort of battlefield energy
work that had been a part of my life for almost as long as I could remember. I
didn’t need to push or pull on the walls to fly here. Any actions that I took,
with the ball or the walls, wouldn’t manifest in the visible spectrum unless I
wanted it to… and if I wanted to, I could even go a step further and insulate
or cloak them so they were masked from other senses as well. But only a few
people had even seen what I’d done to the ball, the rest wanted the visible
evidence that they were achieving something. They didn’t need it, but they
weren’t ready for that step yet.
My presence here was no coincidence though, few people in
this business believe in those. Everything has its reason and mine for being
here… well, it wouldn’t be the first time I’d been called in as a substitute
teacher. I needed to keep the extent of my experience hidden, especially to
start. It wouldn’t do any good to frustrate the ones with a competitive spirit
who wanted to win or to turn the fun into an obvious lesson. I’d had some good
teachers myself but it had still taken more than my share of mistakes before I
learned how to emulate them with any success. This game was about to get much
more interesting.
The next time the ball came my direction; I changed my
pattern of movement. I drifted quickly toward it, and several players nearby moved
backwards or began to gather some sort of defense. Instead of redirecting the
ball, I had a completely different plan in mind. With a bit of a flourish - a
complex ripple of sound, like a harp formed of silver and glass, flowed into a
visible sphere around the ball - I wrapped the ball in a fairly solid single
layered shield. Almost as an after thought, I manifested a second visible
object, shaped like a tennis racket, and gave the thing a good hit across the
room.
The first person that thought he knew what I’d done tried to
mimic me. The kid manifested a baseball bat and took a swing at it. He kept his
eye on the ball and, under other circumstances, it would have been a long drive
into left center. The shield wasn’t as solid as it looked, though, and hitting
it with my racket had been a bit of misdirection. The ball shot through the bat
and the ricochet off the wall close by nearly put him out of the game. He made
a very quick if heavy-handed push off the wall to evade it successfully but
he’d probably be feeling the after effects of that move for a day or two.
A few players attempted to redirect the ball as they had
previously, assuming that the shield was purely Glamour of some sort. I watched
carefully as several of these slid right past the ball. This was the real
result of the shield I’d made, to make it harder to grab hold of or ward away.
I hoped more than one of them managed to work out how to get by it and
remembered the trick when they were in trouble. A few of the players were
nodding to themselves as if they’d at least figured out what was going on and
to my delight, the girl I’d observed before was actually watching me almost as
carefully as she was watching the ball.
One of the older men was the first to get a grip on it. His
manifestation was close to the psychic equivalent of a bear trap. The teeth
clamped down on the shield from multiple directions at once, keeping it from
slipping away. He whirled the whole thing around his head on the end of a chain
and released it at a boy who looked similar enough to be his son. The technique
was a bit brute force for my liking, but it worked. There probably weren’t
many here who could emulate it. As it was, he almost lost his grip on, to him,
the ceiling and dropped several feet before stabilizing.
The boy reacted well, crafting a curved field that slowly repelled
the shield in a way that wouldn’t have worked on the ball alone. I grinned in
pleasure as the kid adapted his field to cradle the ball as it rebounded from
the wall and push it harder back at his father. The old man didn’t have the
time to get control of it again, but he did manage to dodge it easily enough.
These people might be inexperienced but they had a lot of potential.
I avoided the ball when a young Native American woman tossed
it my direction a moment later. She caught it by the shield on its return and
with an odd movement, the ball squirted out the side of the shield, clipping an
Asian boy on the side of his head before he had a chance to react. The shield
looked a bit like the skin of a grape before it began to dissolve. As the boy
left through the walls, I noticed that they seemed to close in some. As the
numbers dwindled, so would our room to evade. I had to wonder how small the
place would get by the time there were only a couple left.
The high school girl, who I’d noticed earlier, used her
elemental Water to create a shield around the ball similar to my own. It
wouldn’t be quite the same sort of slippery but it would be fairly effective,
especially against the guy she was currently targeting. His energies seemed to
be Fire dominant and though the curved shield he used cancelled out part of the
shield, the ball itself was free to push right through it. His shirt was
steaming from the excess water as he went through the wall a moment later. He’d
probably wake up a bit wet. And hopefully he’d realize that a tactic for one
situation wouldn’t always work for another just because it looks the same.
Several other players used the shield trick to challenge
their favorite opponent, frequently someone with opposite energy fields. I was
a little disappointed to see that so many of them persisted in using just one
type. That wouldn’t be a good situation to be in if they were targeted by the
Enemy. Most creatures of that sort would have at least one major resistance and
would be selected or even made for that reason. I had to think on this, though.
I wasn’t ready to make quite that large of a change to the way the game was
being played. Not while there was this many people still present.
The next time the ball headed my way; I centered myself and drew
my soul sword. This might give the extent of my abilities away if anyone
recognized this as anything more than a manifestation of energy but it was
worth the risk. With the blade of silver fire, I sliced the ball into two
halves. The parts flared brightly for a moment, growing to the size of the
original, then flew with added strength around the room. I shifted into a guard
stance and watched as the pace of the game accelerated. Twice more a ball came
near me; each time it left as two.
With four balls zipping around the room, the walls were
closing in fast. In less than a minute, the numbers had dwindled to fewer than
ten players. Three of the four balls were shielded with one or more types of
energy. I wasn’t surprised to see that the Water mage and the Native American
woman were still in the game, both seemed to have a pretty good grasp of
controlling energy. Both were fairly aggressive though, so I was unsure of how
effective their defenses might be. The boy who’d used the repellent field
against my soft shielding was still in also, but his father had been knocked
out when two balls had come at him at once. His kid had some great defenses and
was playing a much more defensive game than most.
The use of my soul sword did make me pretty safe for a while.
No one wanted to send the balls in my direction if every time they did; there
was suddenly another ball to deal with. Each person that was taken out of the
game also reduced the chance that I’d get hit randomly, making it easier to
predict the pattern of the remaining balls. I simply waited. Soon enough, the
game would stabilize again and it’d be time to test the remaining players.
It took a few minutes, during which time I had sheathed my
soul sword. I didn’t intend to add any more balls to the mix at this point and
I didn’t need the threat of it to keep me safe. We were down to five. Besides
the three I had noted already, there was a being wrapped in Glamour. I was
certain that he wasn’t human and possibly not male. Most likely he was Sidhe,
but I hadn’t ever run into one before and couldn’t be certain. I hadn’t noticed
him before because, like me, he had an incredibly good grasp on probability
paths and hadn’t needed to be offensive or defensive. He just wasn’t in the
right place at the right time to be hit… ever.
The room was down to a little larger than a volleyball court
at this point and the remaining balls were moving fairly quickly. One of them
had about six layers of shielding on it, mostly from people who were now out of
the game. Everyone just avoided that one. The two women were taking turns
trying to get balls past the boy’s shielding. He was good, very good. He’d
added an ablative shield at some point, tucked in just behind his repellant
one. It hadn’t taken much damage so far but he obviously recognized that angle
of attack was the primary weakness with his main defense.
The girl using Water added an extra half spin while setting
up her current attack on the boy, which sent it straight at me. I’d been
waiting for it, though, and just grinned as it came at me. I think every one of
them froze for a moment when I ‘ate’ it. That wasn’t something I’d do in combat
without being pretty desperate, of course, but my experience with splitting
them had given me all the info I needed about their make-up. The surprise was
especially useful against the Sidhe… for just a moment, I was able to see
through the Glamour that she was using.
One final test, then. I reached out to wrap both the
unshielded balls in a flickering shield - the walls vibrated with a
deep heat/color/sound - and then dissolved the third ball, shields and all.
These two would be plenty to keep us busy, the shields I’d just used were chaos
based and would be shifting energy patterns to take advantage of our weaknesses
and be particularly resistant to our strengths. This meant I could no longer
rely on my Pattern sense to keep me safe, but the benefits would make that
worthwhile. Each of the others would be forced to adapt to continue to succeed.
The first one who faced the unexpected was the Sidhe woman.
She floated clockwise, following the Pattern to safety, and nearly drifted
right into the path of one ball as it reversed spins mid-room. At the last
moment, she flung up a hard faced shield, which rang like a bell as it
deflected the ball. The sound disrupted her Glamour, revealing her to the rest
of us. The look on her face was probably the same that I’d have had if I were
to appear naked in Time’s Square.
The Water mage had shifted to using Air to manipulate the
balls. She wasn’t showing quite the same finesse, but was still fairly
effective in throwing the balls around the room. She seemed to be almost single
minded in trying to get past the boy’s shields. The Native American woman
knocked herself out of the game a moment later. Her secondary technique had
somehow pulled the ball toward her instead of throwing it at whomever she’d
intended to hit. Sparks flew as it made contact with her, I wasn’t sure if it
was a last minute attempt at a defense but it didn’t seem to accomplish anything.
Her last action as she passed into the walls was a bow in my direction and a
knowing grin.
The kid was holding up pretty well, his shields randomizing
every few seconds to a different energy pattern. I suspected that he had a bit
of the modern techno-mage to him, that technique was straight out of Star Trek.
He’d dropped the repellant field completely and was relying almost completely
on the hard shields. A moment later his shields seemed to go away completely,
leaving him exposed to the attack already sent on the way by the Water mage.
She looked almost as surprised as he did. Then they both noticed what the Sidhe
woman had done. Rather than attacking him, she’d boosted the strength of his
projection, expanding the next fluctuation so that it manifested around all
three of them. I’d been on the far side of the room, so had seen it happen from
the outside. That had been a good trick but I doubt that kid was ever caught
that way again… fortunately he’d learned it here and not another way.
His exit left the Water mage, the elf woman, and myself in a
room barely large enough to even need flight. I shifted probability in the room
so nearly every bounce or spin of one of the balls sent it flying at the Water
mage. The Sidhe got out of the way as fast as she could, looking almost as
though her Pattern sensing had hit her with a sledgehammer. I think she
recognized what I was doing and was going to just watch this one. The mortal
girl started trying to control each one as it came near, using Air and even some
Earth energy but the balls were rebounding too quickly. She fell back on
defensive techniques, evading where she could and deflecting with Spirit when
she couldn’t.
While none of the other elements that she was using were as
refined as what she had done with Water, she showed a remarkable ability in
using nearly the full range of Elements. Only Fire was left unused, which was
not entirely surprising for someone whose strength was Water. She held out for
almost two minutes as the sole target while the balls acted almost like homing
missiles. Finally, looking almost resigned, she raised one final Air shield
knowing that there wasn’t enough energy in it to stop the next ball.
In that moment, with the two balls both within inches of
hitting her; I froze them. The shields on them dissolved and both the Sidhe
woman and I drifted to her.
“I… how did you do that,” she asked, looking uneasily first
at the Sidhe woman and then at me.
I hadn’t included any visible manifestation on the last
several modifications to the balls and she’d seen them nonetheless. The Sight
did typically appear in those who were strong in Water. When stopping them,
though, I’d also insulated my actions. She hadn’t seen what had been done, or
who had done it. The Sidhe had, though, I was certain of that.
“It was done the same way you make your manifestations
visible,” the Sidhe told the girl. A good answer, that. This woman knew how to
teach… she’d given an answer that could lead to a lot of growth, without
indicating that the girl had made any mistakes in the first place. And without
giving her an answer that made things too easy for her.
She looked at me again before responding to the older woman.
“I thought he stopped the spheres?”
“I did,” dissolving them the same way I stopped them. Once
again, I insulated the action. The elf nodded in approval. I had given the
truth, had given the girl another chance to learn, and done both without being
obvious about it. I caught a flicker of excitement in the girl’s eyes; it
wouldn’t be long before she was able to duplicate the trick. Both tricks.
“Where did you learn all that? You kept doing things no one
else could do!”
I shook my head. I was about to suggest that there was
nothing in what I did that any one of them couldn’t learn when the Sidhe woman
stopped me, Let me explain.
This surprised me. I might have a lot of talent in a lot of
things, but I had only rarely experienced telepathic speech and not once since
leaving childhood. Empathy I knew well, it was an important part of knowing the
difference between the Enemy and those who just didn’t know better. Telepathy,
however, required a refined level of sensitivity that combatants just didn’t
have. Being that ‘aware’ would be a serious liability when demons and dark
spirits started throwing energy bolts around. Either the Sidhe woman had used
something that mimicked telepathy or I needed to completely relearn what I knew
about the talent. Either way, I hoped she’d do it again.
“He has had experience doing this sort of thing before… in
situations much more dire than this,” she told the girl. “And his teachers in
the Dreamworld are among the best ever to take human students.”
Curiouser and curiouser. Did she really know my teachers or
- I know. I involuntarily did my Spock impersonation, one eyebrow rising
rapidly. I doubted she was lying, the level of certainly in that simple
response was incredible… and she’d lifted the train of thought from my mind as
well, so even if she hadn’t know before that, she did now. Somehow, it didn’t
worry me as much as it should. Unfortunately, this use of telepathy had been
too brief and while I thought I’d gotten something out of it, it’d take at
least a couple more phrases.
“Who taught him?”
First thing I would have asked too. Good teachers are
annoyingly hard to find in this business.
“That is his secret to tell, though it is less important
than you realize. While his teachers are among the best, they rarely take on a
student who has left childhood.”
I hadn’t known that. Though it made sense given the style of
teaching they had used. I hadn’t realized what I’d learned until much later in
life.
“Oh… no wonder you’re so good,” the girl smiled
mischievously before adding, “as old as you are, you’ve been doing it a long
time.”
Ouch. Saw that one coming… besides, I doubted I was more
than a few years over twice her age. I wondered if she realized how much older
the Sidhe woman must be. I sighed, shrugging my shoulders as if in apology for
my elderly status. I then bowed and introduced myself with a bit of Renaissance
flair, manifesting my soul sword momentarily for the salute.
“David. Guardian and senior citizen, at your service.”
She giggled. “I’m Diane. Sorry, I didn’t mean that you’re
that old, but you’ve been doing this longer than I’ve been alive… so its no
wonder you’ve picked up a more… tricks.”
“David has picked up more than a few tricks,” our faerie
companion added. “He is one of fewer than a score Guardians who range the
Dreamworld and the waking one. They have a difficult life, moving
frequently as they are driven by their responsibilities and the need to be in
the right place at the right time to serve the Light.”
That sobered the girl a bit. That she understood what that
really said, past the flattery and to the heart of the matter, meant she was
one of two things, a lot older in spirit than body or one of ours. Sadly, I was
afraid it was the latter of the two… if not both. Very, very few of us made it
past the first couple years without burning out… or… or worse. Then I noticed
that the Sidhe had not introduced herself. Nor will I, in this place.
Not surprising, I suppose. The Fair Folk had always been cautious with their
names. I was fairly careful with my inner name myself.
The woman looked around carefully, triggering a wariness
that had been absent throughout this business. While she didn’t seem concerned,
the unease was the first warning sign of something I knew much too well for my
liking. I immediately sent my awareness outward, filling the room and the walls
with energy in the time it took her to inhale the breath to speak. There was
something out there, not really nearby, but potentially a danger. We couldn’t
remain here too much longer.
“Diane, there is much for you to learn. For all of those who
were here this night. And there is rarely the time for the sort of preparation
that is really needed. We… a group of servants of the Light… have recognized a
certain Pattern that is more critical than most.” That caught my attention, but
I was busy at the moment, keeping us as unseen as possible. Cloaking a working
room like this in the Dreamworld isn’t quite as simple as cloaking one person.
“A pattern?” she asked, her curiousity made me grin… well,
it made me think of grinning. Working outside my body like this restricted
those sorts of reactions a bit.
“David will have to explain that to you. We don’t have time
to discuss it here. We will be teaching you as much as we can, as fast as you
can learn. It will not be easy for you or for any of us… but you must learn.
Even if you choose to walk away from all this, you will be in great danger. As
will the others.”
“Others? Why would we be in danger?”
I sent enough awareness back into my body to warn them.
“They’ve seen through the cloaking. I’m going to engage, but you need to wrap
this up and get out of here… this isn’t a fight we can win right now.” And it
wasn’t. On my own ground and without a need to watch over anyone else,
especially an inexperienced witch, it would still be unpleasant odds.
“You and many of the ones who were here tonight are a
potential danger to the Dark. For that potential, they will try to kill you… or
turn you.”
The girl interrupted, “I wouldn’t serve them.”
“You have little understanding of how they work, as much as
you know. Would you let them kill your sister? Do you know your limits of
pain?”
The attacks had begun outside the walls. The fastest of the
creatures had arrived but fortunately they were simply scouting constructs, easy
enough to dissolve before they could even report back. A few of the many
attacks punched through my outermost shielding and the damage was reflected on
my body within the room. A long cut appeared across my forehead and several
bruises were appearing beneath the cloth of my tunic. One on one, these
creatures had no chance… but in these numbers, I could be overwhelmed entirely
too quickly.
“David!” The girl rushed to my side, concerned by the
appearance of blood on my face. Her hands touched lightly to my forehead and
immediately, I could feel the wash of healing energy. That could even the odds
significantly, but in the end, it would still not be enough.
“Diane, it is time for you to go. David will find you, to
teach you what he can. Once you are safe, we can fight this battle as it needs
to be fought.”
We? That might be an interesting battle. I’d prefer to work
alone, but she would make an interesting ally. Even if she was volunteering me
as a teacher.
“Can’t I…,” the girl started to ask. I answered before the
Sidhe had a chance.
“Go now… you’ll get your chance eventually, but you aren’t
ready yet. None of us are ready for some of the things I’m starting to sense
heading this way.” There are things that lurk the Dark that I wouldn’t face
even at my most prepared unless there was no other option. Things were going
to get ugly real quick.
“I… ok. Be careful. Blessed Be!” Her parting words were
more than well wishes. The strong Goddess blessing settled over us, making me
wonder if she were more ready than I’d guessed. That girl was going to be an
enormous boon to the Light when she was fully trained. Now to make sure she
would be trained.
As Diane faded back to the waking world, the room dissolved
into the ambient. I withdrew my defensive awareness from its shape to cover
just the two of us. As I did, the Sidhe woman’s energy expanded to cover me as
well. For a moment, the Enemy withdrew to regroup as their heavy guns arrived.
David, you need to join Diane in the
waking world.
“I what!?” I asked, startled.
You are her teacher. Their teacher. Without you, they
cannot be prepared for what comes.
I felt a strange sort of ‘shuffling’ in my mind. I wasn’t
certain, but I would have sworn she’d just done something to my Pattern sense.
I thought I had an idea on how the telepathy might be working, too. It would
take time, but it would be worth every bit of it to be able to communicate on
the battlefield without having everyone in the area party to your next actions.
“When you said we would fight this battle, you didn’t mean
me, did you? This group you mentioned?”
Yes. We will keep all of you safe for a time. At any
cost.
I knew what that meant.
“Thank you. May the Light guard you. I will teach them as
quickly and as well as I can.” I didn’t even know how I would find them or
where I’d find them yet in the waking world… but I would. I shifted shields and
defensive constructs over to her, giving her as much strength as I could to aid
her… their work.
With that, I raced toward the Enemy, grinning at the
surprise I felt from the ally awaiting the attack behind me. I had one more
trick up my sleeve that wouldn’t serve my usual purposes, but it could be handy
to this group who would be defending these students until I could get them
taught. Some of the closer creatures scattered as I approached. Only the
strongest demons will stand up to the full out charge of a Guardian. Before
they realized that most of my strength remained on the far side of the field, I
leapt high in the air.
When I reached the pinnacle of my super-human leap, I hung
suspended, self-pinned to the fabric of the Dreamworld. In the space of a
breath, I could see several of the more powerful Enemy attempting to reach out
to shield their nearest forces. They were much too slow. I released the Song
from every pore of my being until every ounce of breath was gone. All around
me, across most of the battlefield, ripples in the Dreamworld cast the Enemy to
other places, times or dimensions. Few of them would be able to cross the
Dreamworld to return to this place very quickly. I doubted the battle would be
renewed soon; the Dark would be weeks and hopefully months in getting its
forces ready. My allies might still have to make the ultimate sacrifice to
protect their charges, but it would not be today.
As I drifted to the ground, I saw the Sidhe woman and
several others already engaged with the remaining Enemy forces. I was drained
and though I’d like to join them, I’d be little use. I began my shift back to
the waking world. The Dream around me was already becoming disjointed and fuzzy
when a small globe of energy similar to the ones from the game drifted up to
me.
David, you will need this.
The sphere jolted me as it made contact, an enormous amount
of energy surging through every inch of my waking body. A moment later, it was
gone, and I was wide-awake. I had a new responsibility… but everything I
thought I knew about my world had changed. I… had changed.
Chapter 1
- More than a Dream
since 11/21/04