Since parting with Hedry, James and the others rode throughout the night with hardly any breaks. At one point during the night they came across a major road running east and west. Wishing that it ran more north and south so they could follow it, they crossed it and left it behind. Now hours later, the sun is beginning to peek over the horizon. James calls a halt. “Let’s give the horses a break and I’ll see what I can find out about Tinok,” he tells the others.
Dismounting, he and Jiron move away from where the others are getting a quick bite to eat. Removing his mirror from his belt pouch, he holds it in his hands as he concentrates on Tinok.
Jiron watches the mirror with keen interest but after several minutes of trying, its surface fails to do anything. “What’s wrong?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” replies James. “It could be he’s too far away, the drain of magic for the spell continued to increase which is an indicator that what I’m looking for is nowhere close.” Giving up, he puts the mirror back in his pouch and pulls out the piece of cloth. “I wish I had my compass back,” he says. The compass in question is the one he made way back when he first arrived in Trendle after coming to this world. Fashioned from wood, it would turn and indicate the desired direction when he used it in conjunction with magic to try to find something. Not for the first time he wishes he would have had the good sense to have another built while he was at The Ranch all last winter.
Jiron nods. He remembers how well it had worked. But the cloth works fairly well, though it will most likely attract the attention of anyone close by when he uses it. After all, a cloth that all of a sudden rises and moves to point in a certain direction, who wouldn’t do a double-take if they saw that.
Sighing, James holds one end of the cloth in his hand and concentrates on which way Tinok lies. Letting the magic flow, he opens his eyes and watches as the cloth rises until it’s pointing in a rigid line. Based on the position of the sun, it’s pointing off to the south.
“We figured that,” says Jiron, James nods his head in agreement.
Stopping the spell, James returns the strip of cloth to his pouch.
“Wish it would tell us how far away he is,” Jiron says, and not for the first time.
“Maybe in a day or two I’ll get a better idea where he is,” James says hopefully. “Eventually we will be close enough for the mirror to pick him up.”
The others have finished their meal of dried beef and water. Brother Willim brings James and Jiron over a portion. “Did you find him?” he asks.
Shaking his head, Jiron replies, “No. He’s to the south, but James is unable to determine how far.”
“We’ll find him,” Brother Willim says matter-of-factly.
They eat their less than appetizing breakfast and then return to the saddle. In no time they are once again racing across the desert.
This section of the desert is uninhabited, its proximity to the border of Madoc probably accounts for most of the reason. Whatever the reason, James is glad they are able to move into the Empire without being noticed.
They ride for awhile when Shorty hollers out, “Rider to the east!”
Slowing down, they see a lone rider moving at a leisurely pace. The direction in which he’s moving will cause him to cross their path further to the south. “Should we see what he’s about?” asks Stig.
“No,” replies James. “The less who knows we’re here the better. Still, keep an eye on him.” It takes the rider several minutes before he’s even aware they are there. When he does, he immediately alters course to intercept. No longer moving at his leisurely pace, the rider is practically flying across the desert toward them.
“Damn,” curses James. “Reilin!” he hollers to the Raider who is there to translate for them. When he has his attention, he says, “Go see what he wants before he gets here.”
“Yes sir,” Reilin replies. Kicking his horse into a gallop, he moves to intercept the rider.
The rest of them continue along their original course while they keep an eye on Reilin and the other rider. By the time Reilin reaches the rider and they stop, the rider has come to within a hundred feet of the rest of them.
Before Reilin has a chance to say anything, the rider begins talking quickly. What’s being said is lost to the others but the rider is obviously agitated about something. Finally quieting down, the rider listens to Reilin for a moment before once again launching into another animated speech.
When it doesn’t look as if Reilin is getting rid of the man, James says, “Jiron, go see what’s taking so long.”
“Right.” Nudging his horse in the sides, he makes his way over and joins them. Reilin turns at his approach and the other rider grows silent again as Reilin talks to Jiron. Jiron asks a question and waits for the translation and then again for the rider’s answer.
By this time James has brought the others to a stop. Surprised it has taken this long, he pulls out a strip of dried beef and chews on it absentmindedly while he waits. He doesn’t have to wait long before Jiron leaves Reilin and the rider where they are and returns to the group.
“What’s going on?” James asks as he nears. The look on Jiron’s face says it’s anything but something simple.
“The man’s name is Zyrn,” he begins. “He’s a leader of a nearby village. He wanted to warn us not to go west.”
“Why?” asks Potbelly.
“I didn’t get the whole tale, but the gist of it is that it’s death for anyone to go there,” he explains. “Also, he says there was a big battle there not too long ago.”
“A battle?” asks Miko. “As in the battle we barely survived?”
“I think so,” he replies with a nod.
They all remember the mammoth explosion and then the fire that coated the outside of the barrier for a time. “What is it that’s killing them?” James asks. Visions of radiation fallout run through his mind.
“Now this is where it gets kind of strange,” admits Jiron. “In fact, if it wasn’t for all I’ve seen and been through since I first met you, I would discount it as the man has lost his mind.” He glances around at the others a moment before continuing. “He says the sand is killing them. That the sand is turning into a shimmering carpet of gray and whatever it touches, dies. He says it’s growing.”
Everyone but James and Miko, who had been unconscious at the time, remember the gray sand they traveled through when they left the battlefield. Which only lends credence to what the man is saying.
James has never heard of anything like this. Though he wasn’t conscious when the bubble exploded at the end of the battle, he’s heard plenty of accounts from various people as to its effect. Could he have caused this? In a world with magic, gods and other planes of existence, it’s possible.
Nodding over to where Zyrn waits with Reilin, Jiron asks, “What should I tell him?”
Sighing, James knows what he’s going to have to do. If nothing else at least go and see for himself what this man is talking about. “Go and ask him if he’ll take us there,” he says.
Turning his horse back toward where the man waits, Jiron hurries back over to him. As soon as he reaches the man and tells him what James said, Zyrn begins shaking his head. Then he kicks his horse and rides toward James and the others with Reilin and Jiron right behind.
“No, no, no!” he cries out. “You must not go there!” He waits for Reilin to come and translate. “It is a cursed place. Too dangerous!”
James waits for the translation then says, “Regardless, we are going to see this thing for ourselves.” The pain on Zyrn’s face is evident when Reilin translates for him. “Where can we find it?”
“Hey, aren’t those Parvati swords?” Scar suddenly asks, indicating the handles of the swords sticking out of the bundle behind Zyrn’s saddle.
“Yes,” replies Zyrn. “After the battle I and many from my village came and scavenged what we could.” He can see their disapproval stares directed at him and adds, “Our lives are hard. This is the only way we can survive.” Lowering his eyes, he says, “Of course, there may soon be nothing left anyway.”
“We’ll see about that,” James states. “Now, will you lead us there?”
Realizing they plan to go despite his warning, he nods his head. “Yes,” he says, “I will show you. But be warned, it has already claimed the lives of many.” Turning his horse in the direction of the grayness, he leads them toward it.
James rides directly behind Zyrn with Jiron and Brother Willim. “Do you think we caused this?” Brother Willim asks.
Shrugging, James replies, “I don’t know. We’ll know more when we get there.” He raises his voice and asks Zyrn, “How far is it?”
Reilin, who is riding next to Zyrn, translates then replies “A little over an hour.”
James rides in silence, mulling over what Zyrn has told them.
When the shimmering grayness appears on the horizon, Zyrn stops. “There it is,” he says. As James begins to continue forward, he stops him. “Do not approach too closely, it sometimes advances rapidly.”
“Thanks,” replies James, “I’ll remember that.” Moving forward with Zyrn and Reilin beside him he’s awed by the sheer size of the thing. It’s immense! He notices the rings of swords standing upright far within the gray mass. Pointing to them, he asks Zyrn, “Marking the edge to see how fast it was expanding?”
Surprised that he would have realized that Zyrn says, “Yes. It’s been growing about six feet a day.” He points to where two rows have a large gap in one area. “Though it isn’t consistent, some areas grow faster than others.”
Nodding, James assimilates that as he continues riding toward it. A hundred yards from the fringe, he brings them to a stop. Dismounting, he says to the others, “You stay here. I’m going to get a closer look.”
When Zyrn hears that he rushes to James’ side and says, “You cannot!” Taking hold of James by the arms he stares into his eyes, “This is nothing to trifle with.”
Jiron comes and disengages Zyrn from James. “Don’t worry,” he tells him, “we can take care of ourselves.” With James go Brother Willim and Jiron. Zyrn tries to go with them too but Scar and Potbelly stop him.
“What do you make of it?” asks Jiron.
“I don’t know,” he replies. “Kind of reminds me of the Blob.”
“The Blob?” Brother Willim asks.
“Sorry, it’s a story from my world about a gelatinous ooze that eats everything it comes into contact with,” he explains. “Of course the thing I never understood about it was, if its touch would dissolve metal, what kept it from just sinking into the ground?” He gives them a grin when he sees the lost looks on their faces. “But that wouldn’t make for a good story now would it?”
“Uh, I guess not,” agrees Brother Willim though not quite understanding what James is talking about.
Out within the shimmering gray there are several distinct lumps, though what they once were is no longer discernable. “Must be the people he said the grayness has already claimed,” he guesses.
“Must be,” agrees Brother Willim.
“Nobody do anything until I tell you to,” James tells them. They continue to advance until ten feet from the edge. Coming to a stop, James stares at the edge for a moment and can see it gradually advancing toward them. “It’s still growing,” he says.
Picking up a handful of sand, he throws it onto the shimmering mass. When the sand particles fall and hit the surface, nothing happens other than they gradually turn gray. To Jiron he says, “See if you can find me an insect or something. Make sure it’s alive.”
A minute later Jiron returns with a large beetle. Tossing it into the grayness, he watches as it hits the surface. It jerks twice then becomes still as it gradually turns gray just as the sand had. “Interesting,” he says.
“What are you doing?” asks Brother Willim.
“Just being systematical,” he explains. Next, he closes his eyes and summons the magic to try to get a better look.
Zyrn watches as the three men move toward the edge of the grayness. Held by two of them, he watches helplessly as the three men move closer. First the sand, then the beetle, the one man tests it to see what it will do. Then, he sees the ripple form across its surface, the same as had appeared when the priest summoned his magic.
“Get them out of there!” he cries out. Pulling against the grip of Scar and Potbelly, he yells, “It’s going to kill them!”
“Settle down!” Scar tells him.
Pointing to the ripples coursing toward the edge where James and the others stand, he yells “Look!”
That’s when Miko finally takes note of what it is he’s talking about. “James!” he cries out as he rushes forward.
As his senses move outward, he can feel…something. It’s nothing like he’s ever encountered before. Then, he hears a commotion from where the others are waiting. Keeping the power going, he glances back over to them. He sees a struggling Zyrn held between Scar and Potbelly. “Wonder what that’s about?” he asks, turning his attention to Jiron.
Shrugging, Jiron says, “Who knows?”
Then, he hears Miko yell, “James!” Glancing once again back to them, he sees Miko racing toward him and pointing wildly to the grayness. Looking back just as the grayness surges toward him, he reacts with reflexes honed over a year of magical fighting. Without thought, a barrier springs into being surrounding him, Jiron and Brother Willim.
“Asran’s Branch!” cries out Brother Willim as the grayness washes over the barrier and covers it completely.
“It’s coming in underneath!” exclaims Jiron.
Looking to the bottom edge of the barrier, James sees the ground beginning to turn gray. Adding a bottom section to the barrier, he soon has them completely encased within it.
“What’s going on?” asks Jiron. Gazing in apprehension at the gray, shimmering mass covering the barrier he stands there as a shiver runs through him.
“It’s trying to get in,” replies James.
“Can you hold it?” Jiron asks.
“Oh yes,” he replies. “As odd as it may sound, it’s hardly causing me any problems. It’s almost as if it isn’t even there.”
“How are we to get out of this?” Brother Willim asks. A green glow has sprung up around him after the onslaught of the grayness.
“Not sure to tell you the truth,” admits James. Staring at the solid mass of gray coating the barrier, he wonders just how they will get out of this.
When the gray mass surged over James, Jiron and Brother Willim, Miko came to a screeching halt and abruptly turned around and raced back to the others. The ‘tide’ of gray enveloped the barrier and continued on for another twenty feet before coming to a stop. Then, it began moving backward to the barrier. Ripples continue to form as more of the grayness seems to move toward where James and the others are trapped.
Aleya shoots an arrow at it but it simply embeds itself in the ground and has no effect on the grayness.
“Is one of them a mage of some sort?” asks Zyrn.
After Reilin translates Stig says, “Yes.”
“Thought so,” nods Zyrn. “It reacted the same way when a priest came to try to deal with it.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Shorty yells.
“How was I to know one of you was a mage?” Zyrn replies defensively.
“So how do we get them out?” asks Aleya, fear for Jiron in her eyes.
“I have no idea my dear,” replies Zyrn. “I would have thought they’d be dead by now.” Indeed, the gray covered barrier surprises him. Whoever is within there must be a mage of some power.
“Do you feel that?” asks Brother Willim.
“What?” questions James.
“It feels like sap running through a tree,” he replies.
James sends his senses out again and after several minutes begins to understand what the brother is talking about. Small traces of energy are surging through the grayness covering the barrier.
“What do you make of it?” Brother Willim asks him.
He concentrates on the surges for another minute before turning to Brother Willim and Jiron. “It isn’t magic,” he says. “If it were, I would feel it.” When he first saw the shimmering grayness, he thought that at first it might be a magical construct of some kind. But the familiar tingling that always comes with the workings of magic had been absent. “I think what you are feeling are electrical pulses,” he explains. “Not entirely sure about that but that’s what comes to mind.”
“Electrical?” asks Jiron.
“Yeah,” nods James. “Like lightning but on a much smaller scale.”
Jiron glances to Brother Willim for confirmation but he just shrugs.
Closing his eyes again, James once more sends forth his senses to try to figure this thing out.
The grayness outside the barrier is constant and unchanging. Like a carpet of somewhat transparent gray, it diffuses the light coming through. Jiron gazes at it and a shiver runs through him again.
“The pulses of electricity seem to be originating from one place,” James suddenly says, breaking the silence.
“So?” asks Jiron.
“So…” begins James, “that might be where the source of this is coming from.”
“How far away is it?” Brother Willim asks.
“It’s not close,” he replies. Opening his eyes, he turns to them and says, “Can’t be sure how far it is. Maybe a mile.” He stands there and thinks for a moment, gazing at the bubble surrounding them and the grayness covering it. “Somehow we are going to have to reach the source of the electrical pulses.”
“How are we to do that?” Jiron asks. “Shouldn’t we first worry about how we are going to get out of here?”
Gesturing to the barrier Brother Willim asks, “Can you move this while we walk?”
“You mean push it under the grayness?” he asks. When Brother Willim nods yes, he thinks but a moment before he says, “Yes, I think I can.”
“They’ve been in there a while now,” says Scar.
They have done nothing but stare at the dome in the grayness where James, Jiron and Brother Willim are trapped since it first covered them. Miko had begun to try to use the Star in some way to rescue them, but Zyrn cautioned against it. He said that it was magic that it reacts to.
Frustrated, all they can do is watch. “If anyone can get out of this it’s James,” says Stig.
“You got that right,” replies Potbelly. “In fact, I remember Jiron telling us about the time they were in this swamp…” He then goes into the story about the complex in the swamp with the skull pyramids and the headless torsos.
“Look!” exclaims Shorty.
Cutting off his story at the point James had found the hidden entrance to the complex, he again turns his gaze to the shimmering field of gray.
“What does he think he’s doing?” Stig asks.
The dome in which their trapped comrades lie begins to move. Not toward them and safety, but deeper into the grayness. “Do you think he knows which way to go?” asks Scar.
“Could be moving blindly in order to find the way out,” suggests Potbelly.
Shaking his head, Miko says, “I don’t think so.” He’s been through too many things with James to believe he would engage in a course of action blindly. “He knows what he’s doing,” he states with conviction. I hope you know what you’re doing!
Moving the barrier while still maintaining an air tight seal to prevent the grayness from coming in, at first was pretty hard. He had to keep the barrier beneath where they are walking stable so as not to trip them. At the same time, he needed to extend the forward area while retracting the rear.
Originally he thought to treat it like a hamster ball, and just have it roll along. But he soon realized that was not going to be feasible, not with the three of them in here. Going slowly at first, he moves the barrier along the ground at a crawl. Though as he continually does it, he finds that it’s growing easier to do and soon doesn’t have to work as hard to keep it going.
Another thing that’s been bothering him that he has yet to mention to the others is their air supply. There’s no way for the air within the barrier to be refreshed. The barrier itself is sizable so if this doesn’t take too long, they may be alright.
As they move through the grayness, he had thought there would be more of a resistance. The rate of the electrical pulses had increased as soon as they got underway which is why he thought something was about to happen. But nothing manifested. The way it reacted to magic, how it moves, he can’t help but think that it is somehow alive. Maybe not intelligent, but definitely alive. It almost feels like an episode of Star Trek where they meet an unknown life form. He wonders what Captain Kirk would do in this situation.
Thinking about Star Trek makes him melancholy. He misses home and the things that he can no longer have or do. What he would give for a pack of M amp;M’s right now! Always a chocolate junky, he can almost taste the chocolate melting in his mouth.
“James!” cries out Jiron.
Snapping out of his reverie, he discovers the grayness has once again begun to seep through the edge where the barrier over their heads meets the barrier beneath them. With a thought he reconstructs the barrier sealing off the grayness that had seeped in, then pushes it out and away from the barrier.
“Sorry,” he says slightly embarrassed.
One last errant thought crosses his mind as he wonders if there is anything similar to the cocoa bean here on this world. Getting back to the task at hand, he puts his idle curiosity to the back of his mind as he concentrates on more immediate concerns.
There’s no way to tell how far they’ve progressed within the gray coated bubble. As near as he can tell they’ve crossed at least half a mile. At one point they passed one of the swords with which Zyrn had marked the edge of the gray area, but that was some time ago.
Grayness above them, grayness below them, it almost feels as if they are afloat on a sea of gray. If it wasn’t for the firmness of the ground beneath them, he could almost imagine being in a gray storm cloud.
“Do you sense anything?” he finally asks Brother Willim.
Shaking his head, he replies, “Only what I originally felt.” Nodding, James returns to the task at hand and they continue on.
The continuous concentration on the grayness has built sort of a picture in his mind of the paths the electrical bursts take as they course through the creature. Creature? he asks himself. Actually he has begun to think of it as something alive. The pulses always follow the same paths, almost like blood being pumped through arteries. There is a definite rhythm to it and maybe it’s just his imagination, but he can almost feel a heartbeat.
“This thing’s alive,” he says.
“Alive?” questions Brother Willim.
“I think so, yes,” replies James. “Nothing like we understand to be sure, but alive none the less.” Stopping, he turns to Brother Willim and asks, “Wouldn’t that mean this creature falls within Asran’s domain?”
“I…I don’t know,” he stammers. Such a thought had never even occurred to him. Closing his eyes, he prays to his god for guidance and wisdom. After several minutes, his eyes open again. “You are correct in that it is alive. Now that you pointed it out, I can easily see it. But as to it falling within Asran’s domain, it does not.” He glances from one to the other then adds, “There are many living beings that do not fall within Asran’s domain. His charge is that of all things that live in nature. Whatever this is, it doesn’t live in nature or at least nature as I understand it.”
“Well,” says Jiron, all nervousness due to their circumstances vanishing. “If it’s alive, we can kill it.” Now that he understands it’s a living creature, his confidence is returned. James gives him a grin and a nod before continuing on.
Another ten minutes or so of walking brings them to a point where their skin begins to crawl. Not due to the workings of magic, but something else. “What is that?” asks Jiron as he rubs his arm in a fruitless attempt to still the sensation.
“I don’t know,” replies James. Sending his senses out further toward the source of the electrical pulses he encounters what can only be called a void. “Oh man,” he breathes.
“What?” asks Brother Willim.
“I’m not sure if I can explain it,” he replies. “Give me a second.” The others fall quiet as he continues his inspection of the void. Maybe void isn’t the most apt term to use but it’s the best he can come up with. In his mind’s eye it appears to be an opening, a rip if you will. The electrical pulses are originating from the other side.
“I think we found where this is coming from,” he tells them. “It looks like a hole, not a hole as you would understand the term. More like a way that is open between this plane and another. It’s through this hole in our plane that the creature has entered.”
“Can we close it somehow?” asks Brother Willim.
“Maybe,” he says, “though it might take some time for me to figure it out.”
Jiron waits there with Brother Willim while James works on the problem. Then a thought comes to him. “Could this be the spot where that explosion happened?” he asks.
“Maybe,” replies James. Could it be? Could I have ripped a hole in this plane of existence? He seriously doubts that. Back home on Earth they have had larger explosions than the one that the others said happened here and no such thing happened. Yet, magic doesn’t work there, nor do gods meddle in the affairs of men.
Brother Willim clears his throat and then says, “There is something one of my brothers told me that may have some bearing on this.”
Turning toward him, James asks, “What?”
“Well, the night before we left to take your friends back to Cardri,” he explains, “a green star fell from the sky. He didn’t think anything of it, stars do fall from the sky at times. But it was the color of it that intrigued him, he had never seen one quite that green.”
“That’s saying something, coming from a priest of Asran as it does,” remarks Jiron.
“Indeed,” agrees Brother Willim. “He told me of it just before we left, said it fell somewhere to the south of the keep.”
“Which is where we are,” concludes James. “There’s more to this than we know.” A star falls from the sky, one that is a color that even a priest of Asran thinks is odd. And it just happens to fall in the vicinity where the magic bubble detonated with dramatic effect? Hardly a coincidence, but what can it mean?
“Think it has anything to do with what’s going on here?” Jiron asks.
“Hard to tell,” replies James. “It does seem just a bit too coincidental to me though.” Closing his eyes again, he once more sends his senses to the void. It could have been possible that he weakened the boundary and the meteorite punched its way through. Realizing he doesn’t know enough about how it came to be, he puts that train of thought aside for now and tries to come up with a way to close or mend the void.
After studying the void for several minutes, he comes to realize that there are a multitude of micro bursts of power directed at the edge of the void. Excited by the discovery, he narrows the scope of his examination to one small section of the void’s edge. Then understanding dawns on him.
Coming out of it, he glances to Jiron and Brother Willim. “The void is working to close itself but the creature is somehow preventing it,” he explains. “I can feel pulses of electricity that it is sending toward the edges of the void which I believe is preventing it from opening.”
“Then if we can somehow interrupt the pulses,” concludes Jiron, “the void will close?”
Nodding, James says, “I think so.”
“How do you plan to bring this about?” asks Brother Willim.
“I’m going to short circuit it!” he exclaims.
“Do you think they’re still alive?” asks Stig.
“Of course they are!” asserts Aleya.
Stig has the good grace to look embarrassed. He had forgotten her feelings for Jiron before he spoke.
After the dome in the grayness had begun to move, it continued along at a steady pace away from them. Gradually it grew smaller in the distance until they could no longer see it. Now, almost an hour later their worry for their comrades is steadily increasing. Surely something should have happened by now!
A rumble in the distance brings them to their feet. From every direction clouds begin moving across the sky toward the area where the dome disappeared. The rumble they heard was that of lightning moving between the converging storms.
“James!” Miko cries out jubilantly.
“Are you sure?” asks Aleya hopefully.
“Absolutely,” he says. “He did the same thing after we fled Cardri.”
As the sun is blotted from the sky by the thickening cloud layer, the wind that had been but a faint breeze all morning long now steadily grows stronger.
Then from their right they see a dozen people walking toward them. “They’re from a nearby village,” Zyrn tells them as the people come closer. Running across the sand, he quickly reaches their side.
“Zyrn?” asks Bokka, a man he’s had dealings with before and a village elder too.
“Bokka!” exclaims Zyrn as he greets him.
Returning the greeting, Bokka looks up at the converging clouds with apprehension. “Something strange is afoot,” he says.
“A mage is here,” Zyrn tells him. Indicating where Miko and the others are waiting, he adds, “Those are his comrades.”
“Is this mage causing the clouds to move across the sky?” another asks.
Nodding, Zyrn says, “Yes. He’s working to destroy the grayness.”
“How?” Bokka asks.
“That I do not know,” replies Zyrn. Pointing off toward the center of the gray area he says, “The mage is out there right now.”
Above the area where he’s pointing is where the clouds are converging. Dark and black, the clouds are now darker than any this area has ever seen.
It’s been a struggle to draw enough moisture to this dry area to form the storm clouds he’s going to require. Beginning to feel the strain of holding the barrier for so long, and now having pulled clouds from miles away, he holds the clouds steady as he removes the water flask from his belt and drains it.
Brother Willim removes his and offers it to him. “I still have plenty if you need more,” he says.
Shaking his head, James says, “Not right now, thanks.” Replacing his now empty water flask back onto his belt, he returns to the matter at hand. He can feel the charged air in the sky above him. When the moment is right, he increases the polarity in an area away from the void to see what effect a lightning strike will have on the grayness before attempting it on the void itself.
He continues to increase the polarity to the opposite of that which is in the clouds. Then all of a sudden…
Flash! Boom!
…lightning strikes the grayness in the exact spot where he had increased the polarity.
James sends his senses out to pay close attention to that area. During the next couple pulses that come through the void, the ones that would ordinarily have passed in close proximity to the impact point of the bolt of lightning, fail to do so.
“Yes!” he exclaims.
“You killed it?” asks Jiron hopefully.
Bringing his senses back, he glances to Jiron and says, “No. But I think I will be able to close the void.”
“Good,” he says as James closes his eyes yet again.
Sending his senses back to the point of impact, he sees that the pulses are once again passing through the area. So it’s only ‘paralyzed’ for a few moments. But a few moments may be all that will be required.
Now, he sends his senses to where the void lies. Picking a spot as dead center to it as possible, he begins increasing the polarity to attract a bolt of lightning.
Flash! Boom!
Lightning strikes the void dead center. However, unlike the earlier strike, this one has less of an effect. It did ‘stun’ the creature for a very brief moment and the void began to close. But then it recovered and pushed the void back to its original size. If he’s going to do this it’s going to take a lot more power.
Coming back to himself, he sits down on the bottom of the barrier and takes several deep breaths to settle himself. The air is beginning to grow stale, but not lethally so as yet. He sees Jiron gazing at him with concern. “I need a breather for a second,” he says. “This is going to take more than I anticipated.”
“Take your time,” he says. “We aren’t going anywhere.”
James chuckles and gives him a grin. Closing his eyes, he again reaches his senses out to the storm clouds above. Using his magic, he tries to hold back the lightning from striking while at the same time causing the opposite polarity to increase at the void.
As the polarity increases, James can feel the static charge in the clouds fighting to form and strike. Finally unable to hold it off any longer, he lets it go.
Flash! Boom!
A mammoth explosion knocks Jiron and Brother Willim off their feet as the lightning strikes the void.
Sending his senses to the void, he sees that it has shrunk to half its original size while the pulses were nullified. Then, just as before, the pulses resume and it is again pushed back to its former size.
“Almost had it that time,” he says. Opening his eyes, he glances to where Jiron is returning to his feet. “You better stay down there,” he tells them. “The next time could be a little rocky.”
Seeing the warning in his eyes, Jiron nods and takes a seat next to Brother Willim. “Rocky he says,” Jiron mumbles to Brother Willim.
Ignoring them, James again closes his eyes and sends his senses up to the clouds. Working the same as before, he holds back the lightning for as long as he can then lets it go.
Flash! Boom!
Again the ground rolls from the impact. Not waiting to see what happens, he again begins to form the polarity to attract the lightning.
Flash! Boom!
Then again.
Flash! Boom!
Then one more time.
Flash! Boom!
Though deafened by the blasts, he sends his senses to the void and finds it all but closed. Then, the pulses once again begin to come and start pushing the void back. What is it going to take?
Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom!
Four more times he causes the lightning to strike the void in an attempt to keep the pulses from rematerializing and pushing the void wider. On the fourth strike, a spasming ripple runs through the grayness as the void finally closes.