Storm and Stone Ch. 02

"Are you ready for me to visit our guests from last night? This fight was a nice warm-up."

"Yes, but I remind you of my condition: they must survive the encounter. "

"Absolutely, Captain Grokan. I have no intention of breaking my word. Matter of fact, I think I have just the thing to break them without lifting a finger. If you'll just lead the way, I'll get this over with and we can figure out the plan for today. Oh, and no matter what I say or do, regardless of how strange or pointless it may seem, do not interfere."

Grok was taken aback by the human's confidence and just nodded. He led them to the other side of the camp where the prisoners were held in a ramshackle cage that had been assembled from the scraps left behind by Kord's onslaught the day before. It was not pretty and they were obviously less than pleased to be there. Rawn nodded to Dakkrig, who had joined them, then walked up and kicked the cage, and everyone... save himself, jumped when the thing shook so hard it threatened to collapse on top of the prisoners.

"That will do nicely," he turned to Amevina, "I hope you don't think I am about to turn you into an errand girl with this request, but I need you to run... and I do mean run, to Lorup and ask him to let me borrow the smallest adjustable spanner he has. He'll know what to give you. Oh, and grab my phone from our tent, please."

The elf was thoroughly puzzled at the bizarre request, but she trusted her betrothed, so she hastened off as he asked.

Rawn turned to face Grok, a wry smile painted his features, "I need you to assemble a squad of about a dozen warriors to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and wall this place off from prying eyes. Have their backs to us. I don't want anyone to see this who isn't already here. If it works, we're all in for a hell of a surprise."

While Grok and Dakkrig saw to that, Rawn walked into a nearby tent and brought out a table. Amevina returned around that time, still completely confused about the request, but also bewildered by the complete change in his demeanor. He seemed so poised and purposeful that it would have driven her to distraction if not for the strangeness of the situation at hand.

Shortly after Amevina, the two captains returned with Rawn's final request and the human took Dakkrig and Grok aside for a private conversation. The orcs immediately went to the cage and extracted the pair of assassins from last night's attack and shackled their hands and feet to the bars, outside the cage. Amevina gave up trying to sort out what was happening and contented herself to observe and learn, when the orcs split off and forced the mouths of the captives open.

To the complete astonishment of everyone who bore witness, her strange human did something to the strange device and a beacon of light erupted from the side that he never touched. No one knew what to think when he walked up and began to shine the light into the prisoner's mouths, nodded to himself, then pulled out the spanner and forcibly removed the same tooth each of their mouths. The two prisoners were obviously overjoyed and sang out in their pleasure, much to the distress of anyone within earshot.

"Someone take these teeth, please? I'm sure Kem'erra will enjoy my gift of hollowed, poisoned, teeth. I'd bet money I don't even have on this world, that those guys were going to kill themselves with a poison she's never seen before, the moment we tried to get them to talk."

A collective gasp rose up, and even some of the guards broke protocol to turn in shock. It was Dakkrig who finally spoke up.

"You are not of our world, how could you possibly know they would have something like this?"

A resigned sigh prefaced Arawn's answer, "That would be... because the humans of my world are paranoid as fuck and we started doing this shit around a hundred years ago, give or take. Espionage is a motherfucker."

"Espionage?", someone asked.

"Spying and spies."

"I still don't understand, Rawn. How does that relate to you knowing how to find that tooth, and suspecting them of being spies as well as assassins," Grok pressed.

"Okay, remember how I explained about our entertainment yesterday? About how we write all kinds of crazy fiction just to entertain ourselves?"

"Yes, I do. Your arts are most impressive."

"Okay, since the dawn of written history on my world, man has dreamt of flying. Now, our science has caught up to our imaginations and we have planes, like I told you about yesterday. Building on that, our imaginations fuel our arts, and our arts fuel our sciences. If we can imagine it, we try to find a way to do it."

"That is rather terrifying, even for an orc," Grok observed.

"Trust me, I was born there and even I am scared shitless of our ambition. We're trying to create machines, we call it Artificial Intelligence or AI, that can think for themselves and pretty much run everything for us. What are those idiots going to do when that machine sees our warlike species and decides that humanity doesn't deserve to live... that same humanity who has put it in control of everything? It's going to turn our own weapons against us..."

"Arawn, I apologize," Grok interrupted, "but I have not understood a word of that past machines that can think for themselves. I do agree, it is a sobering thought to consider something powerful enough to destroy its own creators."

"No kidding, but I got myself distracted there. The point was that long ago, we imagined AI in our books as well. We are definitely ambitious and paranoid," Rawn laughed. Since no one had offered to take the poisoned teeth, Rawn handed them to Amevina.

"Please tuck those away till we're done so that I can take them to Kem'erra, I don't have something to put them in. Anything that doesn't have contact with the body should do. Who knows what they use in those things."

Amevina did as she was asked and Rawn turned his attention back to the men shackled to the cage.

"So, which one of you assholes wants to be my guinea pig for this little experiment?"

They responded with a stream of obscenities, even a few from within the cage hurled insults. Rawn laughed and turned to Grok.

"They're spies alright. Their natural accent is almost completely gone, compared to the guys we rounded up when you broke us out of the cage. Could you hear it?"

Rawn got nods from Grok, Dakkrig, and Amevina, so he continued.

"That's because they've put work into losing it. I'll bet that, if we had caught them when they were living amongst you, no one would have been able to hear the difference."

Dakkrig struggled to comprehend what he was hearing, "I have to admit, Lord Arawn, that I could not hear the difference until you pointed it out. I do not understand how you can know this? How can you hear what we do not?"

"That's a simple answer. I and my three friends back home are trained musicians. Our ears are conditioned to detect subtle differences in sound like that. Well, maybe not exactly like that, but some of us understand how to apply one skill to a different task when it fits the need nicely... that's a jab at my own people, not yours. Plenty of us have the ingenuity of a brick."

Arawn studied the two prisoners for a moment more, then pointed to the one with the slightly grayed hair, "You will be the canary for this one, I think. Captain Grokan, Captain Dakkrig... would you do me the honor of strapping the other shitbag to this table I brought over? Chain him down good, I want zero movement. He could hurt himself if he thrashes too much."

Rawn was certain at this point that his plan would work. He had been mindful of his surroundings this entire time, and his suspicions had proved correct. The prisoners did not need to know that, however. It would be much easier to break their will if he gave them false hope. He had been unsure if his one Earthly talent had carried over until he was able to relax for a night in friendly surroundings.

Now, however, his mind was sharp, alert, and refreshed. The moment he pissed off the prisoners, he could feel the hatred and fury that radiated from them in waves. Yes, his gifts were amplified just as his own abilities had been... but this was a realm Arawn Stonebrook knew well. That was the strongest of the ties that bound he and his friends to the Brotherhood of the Railroad, empathic ability. Where his friends studied under masters and gurus, and from books in order to learn mastery of their gifts, Rawn maintained an inward focus and followed his intuition. None of them gave any thought to the notion that their gifts might actually be a form of magic.

Arawn had not even realized that his eyes were closed until he heard the orcs clear their throat from the table. It was time...

He stalked toward the prisoner on the table with murder in his eyes. He cupped the man's head in his palms at the ears, and then he focused. Arawn Stonebrook closed his eyes and focused so hard that his face turned red.

Arawn Stonebrook focused so hard... that he farted.

The snickers first came from Grok and Dakkrig, then from Amevina. When they fell to laughter, even the prisoners laughed with them... even if it was a bit hesitant at first. Finally, Rawn joined the laughter and everyone enjoyed the lighthearted moment. The man chained to the cage looked up to see his interrogator stood directly in front of him. All joviality now gone from his features, that smile now reminded the prisoner of some sort of madman. When Rawn spoke, his voice was hollow, emotionless, and unnaturally calm.

"That was a good laugh, huh?"

The prisoner began to get nervous, something was not right. It felt as though the very air around him sucked the fight right out of his body, a little bit at a time, and replaced it with fear. The atmosphere around him slowly became oppressive, and he barely managed a nod through his anxiety.

"Good, I am glad you enjoyed it. I'm afraid you'll want to remember it well. You see... it is the last time you are going to feel happiness or hope for the rest of your life. Watch and learn what will happen to you, next."

By the time Arawn had finished his little bit of interrogational foreplay, the entire area had taken on such an aura of foreboding and menace that every orc guard stood at the ready with his hand placed atop the hilt of his sword. The prisoner shivered in fear and watched the mad human stalk back over to his fellow assassin on the table and touch him on the forehead. That was all he did, just a touch. For a fleeting moment, the prisoner knew only confusion as the man on the table gasped in a ragged breath, then came the scream.

It was a scream of abject terror the likes of which even Arawn had never heard, and it went on... and on, until the man had run out of breath. Another gasp and it began anew. With this second scream the man pissed himself like a fountain, even through his ragged, burlap, prisoner's clothes. Over and over. The orcs jumped back from the table the moment it began and cast a frightened look to Rawn, who merely lifted his finger from the man's head without a word and placed it to his lips in a request for silence. The screaming continued, unabated.

Arawn returned to the hanging prisoner, the predatory smile still spread across his lips.

The display of terrifying and invisible, unknown magic was all that was needed. He broke and begged to be questioned. Rawn thought it probably had something to do with the fact that the front of his pants were soaked clear down to the ankles. He snapped the fingers of his right hand and the man's friend fell silent on the table, but still breathing.

"I trust you will not give them cause to recall me here?"

The prisoner shook his head so hard that Rawn wondered how it managed to stay attached, then turned away to find Grok, Amevina, and Dakkrig behind him.

"You three can finish up here and I'll meet you at the command tent. I'm sure the rest need not be spoken here."

They watched the human walk away and all three realized... they were no longer sure of anything anymore.

*********

It took them another hour to get the information they needed, but they required no further assistance from Rawn. When they arrived back at the command tent, Rawn had reached the end of a phone call.

"Yeah, well, that just fucking sucks, brother. We're going to have to figure out a workaround for that. I'm not in any danger so far and I'm certainly in no hurry to leave after what we just discovered, but if I am going to help these people in any meaningful way, I'll need more than I have here with me now. I gotta go, it's time for the talk. Later, Ray."

Rawn hung up the phone and placed it on the table. He had been facing the door, so he saw them enter. He didn't give them time to speak.

"Okay, I know you have questions, but I have both news from Earth that probably ties into this bullshit we are all stuck trying to figure out. Then I have an experiment that will hopefully tell us more about what I have to explain to you regarding what you saw outside. After that, I'll answer any remaining questions that lie within my ability to do so. Does that sound fair?"

When he had everyone's agreement, he continued, "Okay, Amevina... I need you to cast the torch spell again. This is important. I think I understand why I see the Elder Tongue when you use magic. Go ahead, please."

Once she had completed the spell, Arawn crouched as before, to study whatever it was he saw surrounding her magic. He reached out with a finger again and touched something she could not see, the nodded to himself and stood. With a sad smile, Arawn lifted his right hand and closed it into a fist. He hung his head low, unable to look Amevina in the eyes, and the moment he opened his hand it became wreathed in white-hot flames from his wrist up.

"Whatever magic brought me here," Arawn explained to his silent allies, "has made me more in every way I can think to test." With his left hand, he pointed to his still-burning-but-unharmed right hand, "I can't do this back home either." Following the declaration, the flame crept up his hand and took the form of Elder Glyph he touched in Amevina's hand, then floated above his fingertips.

"So, what can you do... back home... as you say, Arawn?"

He locked his gaze with Amevina's and never blinked once as he delivered her much-deserved answer, "That's the simple part. I read the emotions of others like you read a book. One glance is all I need. That's it. I feel them as well. Physical contact makes it stronger. At times, if I touch someone, I can feel their emotions with such force that I actually see their memories in my mind associated with whatever particular emotion they are feeling the strongest at the time. I'm also quite good at keeping people out of my mind and emotions. On my world, people with my ability are called empaths, and we're rare. Most folks on Earth don't know whether to call us mystics or lunatics and even the real mystics don't know what to do with us. It's like we operate on different levels or something, because their techniques rarely work for any of us and it is always a mystery why."

Grok spoke up this time, "So, why wait to tell us?"

Arawn sighed, "That's the million dollar question, isn't it? Back on Earth, I had to be in a reasonably balanced emotional state in order to be able to use my gifts. Since I arrived here, I've been thrown in a cage, then participated in my own dramatic rescue several days later. I didn't even know my gift worked on this world until I woke up this morning after a good night's sleep. Lorup came by to deliver your message and we had a conversation in which I made him a promise to try and get him copies of a few books on chronometrics. When we left, I could physically feel his excitement.

"And with you, Dakkrig. I did nothing to you with my gift, but you radiated such pride that it was easy for me to trigger the responses I wanted. That only confirmed that my gift still worked as it did on Earth, though. What I did to those assassins... I'm paying a cost for that even as we speak. I poured raw fear straight into his heart, then used the force of my will to tell it that it could not stop, nor speed up in response to stress. That's the only reason he lived long enough to break the other guy. When I released him from the terror, I also told his heart to remain steady for the next two hours, then slowly relax back to normal."

"But," Amevina pressed, "... how?"

"How does the mind tell the hand to move? That it is an extension of my will, is all I know. The same as I want to use my hand for something, and it responds, so it is for my gifts.

"I can say that compassionate use comes from the heart area, and applications of force seem to originate in the gut. If you want to know how I do that, it can be different from empath to empath. For me, I relive memories to generate the emotion I need, then direct it to where I want it to go. Here on Terrock, however, I have the dubious benefit of being able to give it precise purpose and direction."

"And the memories you revisited to do, that...," she continued.

"...were the memories of a young boy, betrayed by his father," Arawn finished for her. "I had to torture myself with my past in order to do what I did to that man. It is not like feeling someone else or summoning fire. To put something in someone, I have to have something inside of me to put there already waiting. That is the price of my gift's expansion by whatever brought me here."

Amevina's heart broke for her betrothed, and a single tear trickled down her cheek. Grok cleared his throat.

"I think that it is safe to consider this matter settled. While I do not agree with his choice, he was justified in not bringing to us what was not an issue at the time. Next time, however, let us know something as soon as you discover something new. You're full of too many surprises, and it will start to scare people if we are not careful.

" I've explained to the guards that you are just a mage with strange and unique magics. No one inside this tent should speak of this with anyone outside this tent, the orc and elven councils, or anyone they have not ordained. The Vaszul cannot be allowed to learn of Arawn's power, it might spur them into direct action and we cannot afford that at this time. Are we all in agreement?"

Everyone sounded off in the affirmative and Rawn hugged Amevina close. They made their way back outside and Rawn just stood there for a moment and Dakkrig chose to indulge his curiosity.

"Lord Arawn,..."

"Please Dakkrig, I have been informed that polite company requires you address me like that, but I would much prefer that you call me Rawn or Arawn the rest of the time. Just don't get yourself reamed for doing it at the wrong time, please."

Grok's cousin laughed and agreed.

"Fair enough. I had a question. Grok said that you came to him last night and requested to do the interrogation. You said that you had no idea you could do what you did until you met Lorup this morning. What was your original plan?"

The warm and jovial man vanished again, replaced by the one they saw at the interrogation.

"I was going to see if Kem'erra would keep him alive for me so that I could just beat him and break bones until he talked. Healing magic makes interrogation a lot more interesting."

Dakkrig was at a loss for a response. Arawn reached up and patted his shoulder... okay, more like the upper bicep... and made a beeline for his tent, where he remained until they were ready to transport the rescuees back to Lake Home.

*********

Two joints and half an hour later, Rawn had lay silent in his tent with Amevina curled against his side. His hands absently stroked her white, silken tresses while her fingers played gently in the sparse hair on his chest. His thoughts were thoroughly locked on the situation and he did not like it at all. It was as if someone were trying to play a joke that made him the superhero of a comic that made no sense. Everything was happening so fast, and this new shit with the time... now that threw him for a loop. He forgot to mention it back in the command tent after he informed them that he had news, too. He would make it a point to tell them before Amevina took him to Lake Home. He still had no idea what to make of it, especially within the context of everything else that had been discovered in the whole one day since his release from that nasty ass cage.