Words of Power

by Starscribe

Chapter 17

Lotus had been on extended camping trips before. Or more accurately, Eric had. He had always enjoyed a chance to be in nature and get away from the stress of a modern life. Getting out into the wild meant there was no one around to judge, no one whose standards he could fail to meet.

Lotus could enjoy many of those same things. There was no fear of neighbors noticing her through an accidental gap in the blinds. If the police or some shady government organizations were going to find her, they would have a much harder time sneaking up on her. That kind of raid would probably involve an attack helicopter in the middle of the night, or maybe some black clad sniper ready to make them disappear.

Unfortunately, she didn't have any way to know whether the first arson of her life had attracted media attention. All those cameras watched her drive away, yet she had no idea how the world had reacted. Maybe it was all covered up, or maybe there was a nationwide manhunt in progress for the three clearly intelligent animals who drove away from a burning building.

Without the police to confront her, she knew only the more mundane aspects of camp life. She ate disappointing food cooked from dry mix over a propane stove. She drank slightly stale tasting water out of a filter. She slept in an oversized sleeping bag, one that made it no easier to get comfortable in her new body than her old bed.

Each day she woke dreaming of that awful duplex. Her room might have posters pinned to the walls and peeling paint, but at least the heater and AC worked. There were no birds to wake her when she wasn't ready, and no camp pots and pans to be scrubbed clean in the river.

"Sure we couldn't break into the hunting lodge?” she asked, by the third day. "I'd kill for a heater."

Technically she had one already, a little propane one meant for use inside the tent. But it used the same fuel the stove did, and the brightest lantern. If they used it all to keep warm, then they would soon be eating cold, barely edible food.

"Positive. I set up his cameras, so I know they won't be easy to trick. If they go offline, he gets a message on his phone. If any two of them detect motion within five minutes, he gets a message on his phone. If the cabin gets too cold or too damp—"

"He gets a message on his phone," Lotus repeated, ears flat. "I get it. Was just hoping for a hot shower."

"Think of it as more incentive to practice," Gus said. He posed, opening both wings wide. "Iron has been walking me through some basic drills with these. It seems impossible, but he insists that birds like me can fly. Unless something happens to stop me, I'm going to learn it before we get our bodies back. Imagine how badass that would be—flying on your own power? If I'm lucky, my paramotor is still in one piece in the back of my van. If not—at least you got me this replacement."

"Better hurry up and practice," she said. Lotus had herself a nice little workbench now. Not as nice as a desk that stayed warm and dry at all times, but the tarps and a few cushions did help. "I've just about figured out this first spell. I was going to try casting it today, actually."

That remark had the desired impact. Iron's good wing slumped open, and Gus dropped his camera. He scooped it back up quickly, though he didn't switch it on. Despite what he said about being totally prepared for an extended trip, she hadn't seen a solar pad yet. Either he didn't think he needed it, or he actually only had spare batteries. She could hope.

"Are you sure?" Iron asked. "I don't want you to rush. Nobody here is trying to pressure you to start before you're ready."

Because you think if you did, I'd burn the forest down. She didn't say as much. She had enough reminders whispering into her own subconscious that she felt no need to add any to the waking world. "Positive as I can be. Don't get too excited, we aren't going home tonight. I'm just doing the detection spell."

"I might not have fully understood what that means," Gus said. He lifted up onto his hindlegs, long enough to make her blush, and also high enough to get a good view of what she was studying. Obviously, his intentions were only one of those, but which? "Explain to me again. Feels like we've been out here for months already."

He yawned, stretching backward much further and more flexibly than Lotus could. It must be a cat thing, because the idea of moving that way made her ache in sympathy.

Iron answered before she could. Despite not having any magic himself, he had clearly read every word that Luna wrote. Maybe he studied them in the mornings, when she was off bathing in the river. "We need to cross to Equestria using a Worldgate spell. That's extremely advanced magic, life's work kind of magic. Since she doesn’t have a choice, Lotus will have to do everything to make that easier for her.

"The first part is finding somewhere the worlds are extremely thin. That's what the first spell does—it finds places where Equestria is close, and easy to reach. Then when she's ready to cast the spell, that's where we'll do it."

"I don't know if that makes sense," Gus said, panning the camera slowly towards him. The red recording light was flashing again. "But you sounded confident, so I'm going to assume it was credible." The camera came back around to point at her. "You're ready for the first spell?"

She nodded towards a large pad of paper resting in the center of the desk. There she had recreated the spell diagram many times over, erasing each one with careful effort each time. Back when they had a house, she had just made a huge mess, pinning things up and saving many half-finished spell drafts. But now they were limited to what they had brought, and she did not intend to waste. "I want to wait until night. Apparently there's something about location spells under moonlight. I'm not sure why, but I need every boost I can get."

Nothing else productive happened while she finished things up. She had the rest of the day to practice, to finalize what would either tell them how to get back, or damn them to who knew how long until some rescue from the other side.
Her companions came and went, occasionally watching her to see her progress. But if they could actually read the diagram, neither of them showed any sign. Iron Feather wasn't a unicorn, and Gus seemed averse to magical exposure since his first encounter. She couldn’t exactly blame him for feeling unsafe.

Then came sunset, and it was finally time to go to work.

Considering the results of the last attempt, Lotus didn't cast the spell in the center of their camp, where she did most of her work. Instead, she took the spell book and her huge notepad with her to her favorite spot by the river, where it widened into a little pond. It was just about deep enough to wash herself there, which would hopefully make her easy to extinguish if things got out of hand.

She found a stump to prop up her notebook, then levitated the spell book open beside her in the air, so she could reference the diagram and the original at the same time. Luna's notebook was nowhere in sight—everything she thought she needed had been hoof-copied.

"Can you walk me through everything you're doing?" Gus asked, holding the camera in one claw. Even if it was entirely her fault that he wasn't a human anymore, it felt unfair to see he still had hands. The digits on his claws weren't as flexible as the spindly little flesh-nubs of a human hand, but they were more than enough for things like this. Whatever she could do with concentration and “magic,” he could just use a physical limb to accomplish instead.

"No," she said flatly. "Now back a few more steps up, just in case. I want no casualties, no explosions. Iron, if I get weird, soak me to the skin. I think the spell book is indestructible, so don't worry too much about that. Get me."

He rested one hoof on a plastic bucket beside the river. The same one they all used to wash with, or at least she assumed. Eric had gone camping with Gus half a hundred times since they were kids. But Lotus was another matter entirely. She wouldn't feel comfortable with that, even though she spent every day naked.

"Do you feel... like I'll have to?" he asked. "It didn't sound like magic itself caused you to go Nirik. That was your emotions, I think."

She shrugged one shoulder, ambivalent. "My first attempt with magic was garbage, I'm not going to plan for something better. If it happens to go well, then I can celebrate. Until then, I’ll keep my mouth shut."

She set the journal down, preparing as much magical strength as she could store. From what the spell book said, this should not require much magical energy, not compared to the magic they would need to cross worlds after.

But any kind of active spell, even something as simple as levitation, might interfere.

She had nearly cleared her thoughts away completely when she heard Gus's voice from nearby. "Lotus prepares for our second attempt at magic. You've already seen the effects of her first attempt. This might be similarly—"

"Gus!" she snapped, turning to glower at him through the trees. "For one minute, please. Shut the hell up and let me concentrate. Or I'll try to change your hair back again. Maybe you'll end up an actual woodpecker this time, instead of a griffon!"

He fell instantly silent. Despite his larger size, he slumped into the brush, ducking partially behind a nearby tree. He had to know she didn't mean that, right?

She didn't clarify for him. Instead, she returned her focus to the spell diagram. This time there was no interference. If anything, she felt as though the spell book itself was helping her along. That was probably silly in its own way—a book couldn't want her to do anything. Whatever impression she had that it was speaking to her was obviously just in her head.

Yet as she focused on the diagram, as she started reading the words of the spell—her tongue flowed easily over the runes. Light grew brighter and brighter atop her head, until the moon streaming in through the trees looked dim. Every word was a little like inflating a balloon, expanding it larger and larger until the pressure was unbearable, and she had to let it out.

The spell burst from her in a rush of violet light, lifting the leaves and twigs and sticks from where they fell and carrying them in an invisible breeze. A few sparked and sizzled in the air, before landing as a thin trail of ash. She made no attack, but her most powerful magic was still a force of flame.

All that light and heat concentrated in the air directly in front of her, forming an image. She saw it clearly, before she recognized exactly what she was looking at. A huge depression in the ground, circling with mechanical, regular layers. A truck bigger than some houses rolled past, as slow as the old crawler that once took the space shuttle to its launchpad.

"Enfield Mine," said a voice from nearby, amazed. Gus's voice, apparently proud he'd recognized it. "It looks like a live video, almost. How is it so good?"

It wasn't that good anymore. His voice wasn't quite human—it was the reminder of the dangers of her magic, a reminder that she was reaching beyond her ability. Eric wasn't a genius, he sucked at learning new stuff. Lotus could pretend all she wanted; she would never be more than Eric underneath.

The image fractured, then exploded. Heat rocketed past her, tearing up the ground and incinerating anything that got too close. Gus and Iron were far enough away that they could both dive for cover and escape the blast of hot air as it flew past.

Most of that heat went right into the pond, then rose in a sudden rush of steam.

A billowing white cloud filled the clearing. Then when it finally began to empty, it left a smoldering crater around Lotus. Her spellcasting notebook was a shredded ruin, burning at the edges—and the spell book was untouched.

"I know where that was," she finished, breathless. "We can go there."

Author's Note:

First art by Margony in this chapter. Good thing griffons are so fluffy or I probably couldn't post it here lol. Second one was WitchTaunter. Some really awesome work this week!

Comments

[redmar]

They know where they need to be to cast the portal spell but that is only the first step. I can understand Lotus reacting angry to Gus when he distracts her after all he did that last time as well.

[Skrepka]

Thanks for chapter

[Eroraf86]

Okay, that's progress! Good. Still need to work on the backlash, but good start!

[Alyarin9000]

A portal in a mine, eh? Well this isn't familiar
Searing may be waiting for them there, is the only fear. Things are getting more dangerous...

[Catprog]

I am not sure it is a good thing they are refering to their human self in the past tense now.

[minibox]

Lotus is certainly more careful about this. She's sticking to the plan and it paid off. Though, this is just the first step. There may come a time where her experimental side will be needed. Gale is coming, and she will be force to reckon with.

[harts fire]

amazing chapter.
we all know the finding the thin spot and getting to it will be a hole new kind of crap show.

[FanOfMostEverything]

"Gus!" she snapped, turning to glower at him through the trees. "For one minute, please. Shut the hell up and let me concentrate."

"For God's sake, you can add the narration in post."

That was probably silly in its own way—a book couldn't want her to do anything.

It wasn't like Iron had explicitly told her that it contained half of a kirin archmage's soul and power or anything.

Confidence appears to be the biggest issue Lotus has to deal with, followed closely by whatever security the mine may have. We'll see how the trip goes.