Crystal Core Read online

  Rather than act upset, which he didn’t really feel, Willum waved slightly, then bowed again. This time no one else did it back.

  “We should see to that message? Then we need to go. There’s a celebration… At a fort, near here? Are you all planning to attend that? I hear that there’s a food booth. You can help with the work? That does sound like part of the plan. All of us working, I mean.” Not that he knew that to be the case at all.

  Edom actually grinned then. His hands came together, as if clapping, but silently. His fingers touched at the end of the move.

  “That would be marvelous, if you’d like to come?”

  Rather than answer, the vampire that had struck out at Willum did it again, several times. Never making contact at all. He did try though, almost going over the whole shield, academically. Rather than in anger.

  Finally, he stood back.

  “Damn. That’s good. Magic, you say? Are you a mage then?”

  The words were a bit different, but he nodded.

  “A wizard, from a different world, but close enough. So, that letter?”

  That seemed, for some reason, to work well enough it meant going back inside, and then trying to hurry them all along as they sat at two of the booths. Edom was taking notes, his shield off. It was trusting, given he didn’t know that it would turn back on instantly, if he were attacked again. It wasn’t the fancy double shield kind, just being a standard space going unit.

  Crystal went back to work, doing her inventory of what was needed.

  That left Willum sitting at another table, with four of the vampires, their leaders being the ones with Ed. Going over how wronged they felt they were being at the moment. They blamed the Council, but from the discussion that didn’t seem fair. The problems were coming from outside of their own people, for once. It was simply that these folks didn’t seem to have a way to cope with that at all. So, they’d thought to lash out at those of their own kind they could, in theory, touch.

  Looking at one of them, who was a shorter woman, he nodded. She wasn’t highly attractive at all, but managed a more pleasant scowl than the others had going on at the moment.

  “I’m not really from here… Do any of you know what the holiday is? The Fourth of July, but that sounds like a date to me.”

  One of the men, who was taller than the others and light skinned, if a bit fat for a vampire, however that worked, gave him a funny look.

  “Independence Day. It’s a celebration of the day that the United States claimed their freedom from the British Empire. It really didn’t take place on the Fourth, but that’s when we celebrate it. Normally with picnics and watching fireworks.” The others glanced at the man, then Willum, as if there would be a problem. Which there shouldn’t be. After all, he’d asked for the information.

  It was pretty helpful, to be honest.

  “Ah! Britain… That’s an island chain off of the coast of Tellerand? Or, you… What do you call it here? Europe?” He’d been in three worlds that had a different name for that place now.

  There was a nod from the blonde, long haired and heavyset man. The helpful one with the information.

  “That sounds right. How far away from here are you from? You don’t have an accent.” The words were a little bit blunt, but there was no anger behind them.

  “A different reality. I’m a line walker. The one that carries messages around? I learned to talk like this… Here, actually. In this very booth, as a matter of fact. Now… Really, I should probably go and see about cleaning up the char marks on the bricks out front, if I can. Anyone want to come with me? I’m certain it will be great fun!”

  He stood, slowly, but so did the others at his table. None of them bothered to go back to help him get a mop, sponge and bucket of clean water, but they did wait and all follow him to the spot in front of the store. The mess on the ground…

  That looked nearly like art, if a stylized kind. Which would be good, if they couldn’t get the blackened half circle up for some reason.

  As it turned out, it took some real scrubbing, but the tall informative man and the smaller Asian lady each helped with that part, moving with good speed. It didn’t take too long, given that. When they were finished, it wasn’t perfect, since some of the bricks had actually been melted a bit. That meant they were slightly warped and glassy in a few places. Clearly, they were tile though, not real bricks. There were also some cracks in the floor around where he’d been standing. Willum didn’t mention it, since he had no way of repairing the damage at the moment.

  None of them would, at a guess.

  The gray colored water was put away, dumped down the drain, as Crystal and Edom moved to secure the store, with everyone standing in the back.

  Edom seemed a bit annoyed then, but hid it well from the others.

  “We’re going to the event now. If you’d come to the node?”

  That got everyone to move, and Will to explain things.

  “I’ll take you through one at a time. Crystal and Ed first. Then the rest of you, in any order you choose.” Technically he needed to take Edom in first, being he was in charge.

  The man wasn’t standing on ceremony it seemed, and while he was easily able to pass the location data to Willum, he stood back and allowed Crystal to go to the location first. That, it turned out, was directly behind a rather busy outdoor stand, which stood in a row of similar creations. It smelled good, he had to admit.

  Like cooked meat, onions and something sweet. Also, oil. Potatoes as well, he thought. It was food that he’d had before, so got the idea.

  Inside the wood and cloth structure there were four people working, attempting to keep up with the flow of orders coming in from the line of people that stood out front. There were other food stands, but this one, near a large oak tree, was the one that had the longest line. Probably thanks to the food being simply given away. The others all had prices listed.

  Letting go of Crystal’s arm, he smiled.

  “One bit here.” He half expected to come back to a room filled with dead vampires, or at least a fight, but they were all simply standing there. Waiting for him.

  Over the next few minutes he took everyone to the right location, behind the food stall, and then looked around.

  “We need to find out who’s in charge here. Let me…” The first person that caught his eye was a man who was shorter than he was. Pale, but in a familiar way.

  “Vampire Troy! We’ve had some volunteers to help out here today. What do we need to do?” He was being very heavy handed, and not all of their new friends were thrilled to help out, it seemed. All of the weapons stayed put away, however, and three of the six actually just fell into doing the work when the orders were given. It took him a moment to understand what was going on that way.

  It was, in the end, about the shields. To them, they’d gone in to fight one, or two vampires. Strong beings, but ones that might be destroyed. Except, using their best tricks, all of the people at the embassy had merely stood there, talking to them. Unharmed and not concerned about their would-be attack, in the slightest. They hadn’t been killed or beaten for it even, which showed a level of power so great that it was producing fear.

  To the minds of most of them, they were slaves now. Fighting or running was an option, but going along with the task of the hour was the better plan. At least if they wanted to survive. So, scared or angry, they all wanted to do their best.

  Troy Lopez came over, moving suddenly, but stopping well away from them. Nearly fifteen feet. He’d seemed to blink in space, but it was movement, not teleportation. That felt different when it was used, to Willum. This was more like what Master Mark did when he used his power. Though with less energy behind it by far.

  “People! Thanks for coming. We really appreciate the help. It’s busy as heck this year. We… If you could pick up around the area first? I know, grunt work, but we need to be seen as being responsible. Then, if anyone knows how to cook, we can spell the people inside for a bit? They’ve been at it for
hours and we were promised time to see the sights. There’s music starting at seven. I doubt we can shut down for that. We might be able to hear some of it from here, I think.”

  He seemed slightly sad, as if he might be depriving them of a treat.

  Looking around, Willum nodded, just a bit.

  “That sounds good to me. I’ll work on the cleanup here first. Do we have anything to hold the trash in?” Willum knew what a trash bag was, but not if they had anything like it there at the stand. They did. The things looked similar to the ones from Human Zack’s world, even. Except those were clear plastic and the ones on the roll for use that day were a dark green.

  The others all moved to help with the work, which, interestingly, got three or four of the humans in the area to do the same thing. They were at other stalls, so Will just moved to help with that cleanup, and then did the length of the section they were in. No one complained about it. Not everyone had extra bodies for the work, either, it seemed.

  One of the workers, a cute enough girl who glowed white, fairly brightly, waved at him.

  “Thanks! I was meaning to get to that.” She looked at the line of people at her own stand, which had sweet rolls and some magical amulets for sale. The fields on those weren’t powerful, compared to what he was used to, but they did seem to be real things, not just decorations.

  “Our pleasure.”

  It didn’t take long to have the whole area cleansed of trash. Two of the new vampires even kept doing it, while the rest moved to wash up, before taking over food handling duties. Willum was willing to help with that portion as well, but was tackled instead. He didn’t go all the way down, but had to hold his shield off so Eve, his friend, wouldn’t be thrown back.

  “There’s my guy! Kait and I were just about to do a raid into your world and steal you away. That isn’t a joke, either, since we need help on a project, soon. Or, well, not really need, but you should be in on it. Later though. Is everything going well?” She glanced around, as if they might be under attack. It was just a part of the lives of most of his friends, he was coming to realize. Even in his own reality, that kind of thing happened.

  With good reason, as well.

  “Pretty well. I’m just hanging out here, since, you know…” The truth was that he didn’t have a lot to do. A few things to share, maybe, but even that wasn’t really his job or anything.

  Eve closed her eyes for half a moment. Then slowly opened them.

  “It’s because we’re so awesome here? I hear that. Really, I’m surprised almost every day that you haven’t come to move in with Edom and me. Avery is about to be out of the house… You heard that a certain Dragon is getting married, didn’t you? To Troy…” She went still then and looked over her shoulder at the man himself.

  Then she grinned.

  “I’m having trouble with half of that. Surprisingly it isn’t Avery getting hitched too young, either. It turns out that Troy isn’t actually a vampire. He was just faking it the whole time. He’s actually the ancient trickster god, Loki.” Her eyes narrowed a bit, since the man actually walked over, having heard his name.

  The conversation as well, it seemed.

  “Yeah. I didn’t know it at the time myself. Plus, Eve, you do know that it was kind of important at the time. It was either become Troy or the world died. I know, it’s hard, since I couldn’t tell you, but… I’m still me. Perfect and lovable, just like always.”

  She rolled her eyes. It was a big move and not at all subtle.

  “I know that. I even get that I shouldn’t be annoyed with you for being who or what you are. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to put into perspective. I mean… How often does one of your closest friends turn out to basically be a god? Even one with a small g on the front of the word?”

  That got Troy to tap her on the shoulder, then turn, and do the same with Will. After that he counted things out on his hand, he needed to use both of them for it, if not the whole of the second one.

  “I’d say… about a third of the time? At least around here. More if I get to count your friends. All those ex-greater demons you know.” He looked directly at Willum then.

  “Right. You were gone for that, weren’t you? About half the Greater Demons in the world are giving that up, just being people now. I mean, they have all their powers still, but the rules are changing for them. It’s pretty much breaking up their society. The veil is down now though, so they aren’t really needed like they were for a long time. I think most of the ones that you know are in on the new change.”

  Will let the idea flow into him.

  For some reason he’d figured the Greater Demons were a group, like humans, not a job description. Still, if they wanted to be something different, then that was probably to the greater good. They’d all described themselves as being kind of evil and hard to deal with, the few times he’d met any to chat with. That might not change, but if it could then it would be good. For everyone.

  “Neat. Now, I should help with the food. That or eat it all. It’s about meal time for me.” He felt a bit bad, since there was a lot to do. Except that there really wasn’t. The new vampires actually were taking over, and seemed to be under the watchful eye of Crystal and Edom, doing good enough work on the project. That meant they had Barbara, the Assistant Ambassador at Westfield, Troy, the former god and Avery Rome, the Dragon Queen, joining them after a few moments.

  Avery moved in for a hug. They were friends, after all.

  “Will! This is a bit of a different event this year than last, isn’t it? I hear we do get explosions, when it turns dark?” She glanced at the others, uncertain of that it seemed.

  Eve cackled over the idea.

  “True that. Last year we were hitting that secret base about now. This is a lot more fun. Good job, finding all these new minions, Will. How did that happen?”

  Rather than go into the whole tale at the moment, knowing that at least some of them were listening to them, possibly along with the others, he just shrugged.

  “They came in to do some last-minute paperwork before the embassy closed, so we invited them to come with us. Nice people, really. Anyway, we should go and get something to eat. Avery, you do that, right?” He knew that one first hand, having seen it. The others, well, Eve didn’t and he had no clue about former vampire Troy.

  The man nodded though.

  “I could use a bite, myself. Let’s get in line here? It’s free, after all. Plus, we need what Will is going to tell us to be overheard. It will make a difference, later. Oddly enough, not with this whole cross reality war thing, Will. That… Well, we’re all here to help on that, in the next few days and weeks. If you get this right, it will pretty much put it all to bed. Hopefully we all get out alive on it. So far… I think we have a fifty-fifty chance? That could be worse.”

  The data was probably about correct, but there was no normal way that Troy would have been able to know that kind of thing. Not about other realities. Unless he’d gone there to look into things. Which was possible, since the man was a line walker. They all were, which was kind of odd to notice. Thinking back, he couldn’t recall ever having been in the company of that many of his fellows before. Even in training that hadn’t happened.

  Eve made a face then, and faked a sigh. If he were back at home, it would have sounded overly dramatic and much put upon. From the feeling coming off of everyone standing there, including three people who were simply waiting for their food to be prepared, it was being taken that way there as well. The only real difference was that in this place, most of them thought it was mildly funny.

  She made an overdone sour face then.

  “So, you’re using your new Trickster super powers for that?”

  Troy winked at her, then shook his head.

  “They aren’t new. I just forgot about them for a while. Twenty years, more or less. It can happen. I tricked myself so completely that I honestly couldn’t recall I could do that kind of thing. Anyway, to answer your question, yes, that’s about the size
of it.”

  Feeling halfway grumpy, even if it was silly of him to do, Willum growled a bit. Trying to make that fake sounding as well. He wasn’t certain how it would translate to the place he was in, until he got a reaction from the listeners. Apparently, he’d nailed the idea, since no one felt upset or fearful when he did it.

  “From what I can tell, I almost don’t need to do anything really. The goal of destroying all reality isn’t actually possible.”

  Standing there, looking fresh faced and not upset or really even commanding, Lopez took a slow breath.

  “That… Isn’t exactly true. If no one fought this kind of thing then it might well work. In the end it could even happen that way. The difference is that for now, for the next billion years or twenty, we don’t really have to have billions of people killed over and over as people try to end things early. In short, you kind of have to act in this, Will. If you, if we, don’t then there will be untold suffering in so many places that we might well feel it here. Though, the big push on that score, for us, has been broken. For now. Really, I think all of the worlds you care about are more or less going to be fine. This, what’s needed next is to hold the balance for a lot of other places. The big thing, for you, will be in dealing with yourself and coming to a good conclusion that way.”

  Then, for some reason, the fellow looked annoyed. There was a bit of staring at Will, as if the guy was trying to mentally press him to do something in particular.

  What that was, he couldn’t tell. It was there, but seemed to be trying to sneak into his mind, instead of just being presented like a normal thought.

  “Right. Well, we aren’t going to leave everyone else hanging, if we can help it. I just don’t know what to do. The people here are safe though? That’s good to know.”

  Avery reached out and touched him on the arm. The girl, and she didn’t look old, even if she was probably at least a few thousand in void experiential time, held the move for a moment. That left him feeling slightly uneasy, since her betrothed was standing right there. Troy didn’t respond to the move, just relaxing for some reason.