Chapter 13 – Out of the Shadows.

Fraser stared at the piece of paper in his hand. The page of the notebook that held the array. The only thing that they had come away from the anomaly with, beside a ton of questions, and then some more. Not just about the anomaly itself and what they’d found there, but also what had happened. The intentions of Burt and his group, and the whole purpose of the mission itself. Why had they been sent along on this mission in the first place. He had hoped that they’d just be ignored, and that had happened. But it almost seemed as if that was the point in the first place.

Once they had left the anomaly they had travelled straight back to Resinfalls, to the best looking motel, and had booked rooms there. They hadn’t paid any attention to Burt and the others at all, leaving them to sort themselves out, and just booked a room for themselves, and one for the driver, and then headed straight to them. They hadn’t even discussed it this time, just taking it for granted that they’d do the same as the night before, Uriah and him sharing a bed, and Julia in the other. For both her safety, and because it had worked out last time. They were a group at the moment, at least for this trip. Julia didn’t put up any complaints, lost in her own thoughts, even crawling into bed before they had managed to.

It had been a few hours after sunrise when they had all finally gotten up, Fraser’s sleep had been rough, plagued by images of the anomaly, the tearing of reality, and any number of scenarios that his mind could make up about what had happened at the commune a decade ago, and the aspects that could have dragged themselves over to when they were there. Not pleasant at all. Then add in his parents, and he felt just as exhausted as when he had laid down. Waking up to Uriah though, Uriah’s body against his back this time, and his arm over him, their hands intertwined, more than made up for that, creating a smile on his face that he couldn’t hide. He’d pulled Uriah’s hand to his chest, feeling his warmth, and mumbled happily. It was the icing on the cake. He hadn’t wanted to get out of bed at all, but they had to. They needed to return to the city after all, though he didn’t want to do that either. Returning to the Guardians meant returning to his parents.

Burt and the others had been rather quiet and reserved when they had finally seen them just prior departure. Which was strange, given his usual disposition. They’d looked at them, even noticed that he and Uriah had been holding hands, but had then just boarded the utility vehicle without a word. And then they were on the road again, Fraser feeling like there was an invisible timer hanging over him.

“What are you going to do with that? The drawing.” Julia asked after they had been travelling for about an hour with barely anything said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” she then added, looking embarrassed. She was likely just as much on edge as he was.

“I... don’t know,” he admitted. He didn’t want to give it to either the Guardians or his parents. It would probably just end up getting locked away deep in some vault. Like anything else vaguely magic related had been. He was more than a little tempted to just delete the photo on his phone and hide the notebook, or even just the page, somewhere on him. While they might not know its exact nature, he had a rough idea, at least as much as the words written on the whiteboard had said. And, that also felt right, as he looked at the array. It was for forming connections. The exact implications he had no idea, but he wasn’t about to experiment. Not when it seemed rather convenient that they’d found it there, written up and in plain view. By someone who knew and understood the language. By someone recently.

By one of the originals. One of the five who had been there at the source. He was certain of that. No one else had that level of understanding of the language or of magic. Not within the Guardians at least, as far as he was aware, and it would be more so outside of them.

But that just raised more questions.

“I...” he started again, but then stopped, unable to form the eight words. “Please, don’t tell them, or that I could read the words,” he finally managed.

Julia gave him a soft smile, leaning back into the seat. “Was never intending to do so. This all... it just doesn’t make any sense. And there’s no way that I’d rat out my potential partner,” she added, with just a little bit of a teasing smile. To which Fraser grimaced. Another reminder of what could lie ahead.

Fraser put the notebook into his pocket and leaned into Uriah as Uriah wrapped his arm around him, head resting on his chest, eyes idly watching the clouds as they passed by, or gazing up at Uriah. This was nice. None of them seemed in the mood for reading at the moment.

“What happened back there, has that ever happened before?” Julia eventually asked, more time passed as the car just drove along, sunlight streaming in through the car windows.

Uriah shook his head. “Never, not since the Source.”

“I’m still feeling the side effects of that,” Julia said with a sigh. “It makes me feel sick, like someone shook me something chronic.”

“You’re not the only one,” Uriah agreed.

“This whole excursion, it’s not normal, is it?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think that such a thing was possible,” Fraser mused. “Not without whatever they used at the Source. If they could have, they would have done it a long time ago. Our world, it isn’t theirs.”

“It is now though,” Uriah corrected him. “They have been here for the last twenty years after all.”

Julia gave them a confused look. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Fraser let out a long breath, and sat himself up, albeit reluctantly. “How much do you know about the Source, and what happened there?”

“Not much really? Just what we’ve been taught.”

That wasn’t actually that helpful. He’d never paid attention to what was trying to be taught about it, as he’d already known, because he’d been there. “I was there, Julia. I saw it all,” he said, looking at her. The death and disappearance of the creatures still pained him, the feeling just as strong now as when it had been back then. “There were four totemic creatures, and five people, that came through the rift.” He needed a name to differentiate them from the shadow creatures, and that seemed to fit. “After the battle, the people just left. They just walked away. They didn’t go back home, they couldn’t, as the rift had closed.”

“We got taught that, well, that they just disappeared, but the records seem to be a bit vague on it all, as they haven’t been seen since. Could they not have, I don’t know, just used magic to return to their realm?”

“No. They faded into the obscurity of our world, cloaking themselves in it. They never left.” He’d felt that then, that certainty. And besides, they had other proof of that as well. “They have been seen since. We saw one of them.” He’d said it before he caught himself, mentally kicking himself about the slip.

“Huh? You saw one?” Julia looked almost shocked, like she’d seen a ghost or something. Except that seeing a ghost was kind of normal for him.

“Yes,” Uriah answered for him. “And she’s dangerous, and powerful. Not someone that I want to tangle with. They’re still here, Julia. Still amongst us. For all we know, one of them could be involved with the Guardians from the shadows.”

That... that he’d never really thought about either, but, now that Uriah had actually mentioned it, it seemed like it could well be true. And that was a scary thought.

“I gave them all titles,” Fraser continued. “We saw the one that I had called Vampire, in the city. She looked exactly as she did twenty years ago. Just as beautiful. And dangerous.”

“Makes me want to see her now too,” Julia said with an odd grin. “Have you told anyone?”

Fraser shook his head. “No, and don’t mention it either. At least not yet. Not with all this...”

Julia just nodded, picking up the book that she had been reading the previous day, thumbing to where she had been up to. Fraser closed his eyes again, sinking back into Uriah.

“It’s going to be okay,” Uriah whispered into his ear. “We’ll make it through all this somehow.”

Fraser made a contented noise back. Uriah was just as nervous as he was, about what lay ahead. His finger brushed the ring again, and he smiled. He so wanted this. They would make it work out somehow, though truth be told he was terrified, of what lay ahead, of his parents. And how all of this would affect Julia as well. But right now, he didn’t want to think about that at all. He just wanted to enjoy the moment, and try to ignore the figurative axe that was hanging above their heads.

He wasn’t sure how long he dozed for. The day outside was warm, the car was warm, and Uriah was warm. But then he was suddenly awake, all of his senses screaming at him as he bolted upright. Everything was wrong. He could feel it, magic, powerful magic, latching onto their car.

“Stop the car, stop the car!” he all but screamed as he mashed the button on the comms with the driver.

“Fraser?” Uriah looked at him, confused and worried, and then even more so as he began to feel it too.

“We need to get out of the car. Now!”

Everything lurched as the driver slammed on the brakes, the tyres screaming, the car rapidly slowing down.

“Now, now, now,” Fraser shouted again, Uriah reacting instantly, and throwing open the door. They hadn’t completely stopped, but it was enough. Uriah leapt out, Fraser right behind him, dragging Julia behind him, his hand wrapped tightly around her wrist. He felt the impact as he landed on the grassy verge, and then shifted himself enough to catch Julia and stop her from falling. The car had finally stopped a few meters down from them, the tyres smoking.

He saw it, just the briefest glint, before the spellblade’s utility vehicle ahead of them erupted in a ball of flames and light, blasted off the road and thrown tumbling into the paddock beside it, the shockwave rushing past them. Hot, and acidic.

“Move! Move!” It was Uriah shouting this time, Fraser automatically following after him as they ran back down along the road, away from their car.

And then stumbled, a second blast from behind him throwing him violently forward.

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“What the ^%$#% is going on?” Julia screamed, tears streaming down her face. Hell, he’d like to know that too.

Fraser stood back up, and turned around. Their car was also a ball of flames, on its roof and even further into the paddock than the utility vehicle was. He couldn’t see any sign of the driver. Or of anyone else for that matter.

That though, was the least of his current concerns. They weren’t alone. Shadow creatures had started to appear out of the ditch on the other side of the road, clawing their way up and then standing there, their red eyes glaring at them. Hungry eyes. Eyes filled with hate.

“Uri...” He was scared. He could admit that. Something was wrong. Seriously wrong. They weren’t in an anomaly. There was no residual magic around them. Yet, they were there.

“Can you fight, Julia?” Uriah asked, as sparks of fire gathered around his hands.

“No...” Julia replied meekly. “I’ve never been trained.”

“Perhaps now is the best time to learn then,” Uriah responded.

Fraser frowned. He didn’t have his bag, nor his magic. He was next to useless here.

“Oh look at that. Some of them managed to survive.” Fraser felt the presence as the voice rang out. He couldn’t see them, but he could sense that they were there. In the background, cloaking themselves. Powerful and dangerous. But not Vampire. They felt different, and the voice had definitely been male.

“What the hell do you want?” Uriah shouted back.

“You have something of mine, and I intend to take it back.” Fraser had no clue as to exactly where it was though.

“We have no clue what you are talking about.”

“Oh, that doesn’t matter much. I’ll just look for it after you’re all dead.” The confidence and downright venomous edge to the voice was making Fraser’s skin crawl.

“We run?” Uriah asked quietly.

“We run.” Fraser agreed, and then turned, all three of them pelting off down the road.

They only made it a few meters before they were forced to stop, more shadow creatures appearing in front of them. They were only scout and hunter grades, nothing that Uriah couldn’t easily deal with. That he could have easily dealt with too, if he’d had his magic. But he didn’t, and if Uriah took the offensive, that would leave them open and defenceless. They were not in a good position.

They were going to die...

“Finally realised the truth, huh?” The voice was cocky this time, Fraser turning around to find that the cloaked figure was now standing in the middle of the road. Hand outstretched, energy gathering around his fingers. He recognised the magic all too well.

“Uri, I love you. I really truly do.” He said, as he moved to stand in front of the others, defiantly looking at the figure. “And Julia, you ain’t half bad either.”

“Love you too,” Uriah said, as he moved up beside him, their backs against each others. “And like hell we’re dying here. You tell me when.”

Lightning blasted from the figure’s fingers. Hot, bright, searing the ground as it raced towards them. Fraser waited half a moment. “Now,” he stated, jumping off to the side, pulling Julia along with him as Uriah’s sword cleaved through the creatures that they were now too close to. The lighting burnt past them, the ground blackening only inches from them. Except that the figure had anticipated that, it seemed, a second and third blast tearing straight for them, leaving them no room to escape.

And then impacting a shimmering barrier that was suddenly around them, rainbow scales glinting in the air as the magic harmlessly dissipated.

Fraser’s eyes went wide. “Felicia?!” He could feel her presence, her manifestation. It wasn’t like in the shower, when he’d just been able to hear her. She was actually here.

“I could feel it. That you were in some serious trouble...”

He could hear her too. Loud and clear.

“Okay, she has a cute voice,” Julia managed, picking herself up as Uriah dealt with another creature that had leapt at them. The rest though were just standing there. Watching and waiting. And the man, well, he couldn’t actually tell. Cloak and all that hiding everything.

“Now that is a surprise. But it’s not going to change anything.” The man raised his hand again, another bolt of lightning arcing towards them, and then dissipating off Felicia’s shield as it shimmered in every colour.

“I can’t keep this up for long. I don’t have much magic, being a ghost and all.”

“How are you even doing it in the first place?” Fraser asked. “You were a scion.” Not that he was ungrateful, just a little surprised.

Another blast, dissipated again. But there were cracks starting to show in the barrier.

“Instinct.” Felicia was starting to sound worried and stressed. He was too.

Another blast, the cracks becoming more obvious, heat washing over them from the intensity of the magic. And movement from Uriah as he dispatched another three creatures. They were starting to get clever, attacking from both flanks at the same time. Almost as if someone was giving them instructions.

Like the one that he’d seen the other day, outside the complex.

They were out in the daylight too, their forms so much more vivid and terrifying in the night, the forms and shadows underneath the out layer very much clear. And creepy.

“What about that array that you found?” Julia suddenly piped up. “You said it was for sharing resources. Could you give her access to your magic?”

“That...” Uriah seemed to pause for a moment. “It could work,” he then agreed, though Fraser was certain that there was something that he wasn’t saying.

“Please? Try it?” Felicia had managed to stop another blast, but the barrier was starting to visibly fall apart. She was spent.

He wasn’t sure. Of what exactly it would do. Of whether or not he’d be able to even activate it, or even how to use it. But he had it there, in his pocket. He could but try. He did not want to die here, he did not want any of them to die. Not again.

And not as a man.

Shoving his hand into his pocket, he wrapped his fingers around the notebook, and... umm... he still wasn’t too sure. Shrugging, closing his eyes, she reached inside of herself, and called on her magic. Please, just this one time, respond.

Power surged through her, around her, and everything went white.