Of Mind and Magic
Chapter 10
Laura leaned against the wall of the attic her gaze locked on Hadrian. He floated in the air, rings of the elements intersecting around him. Impossibly, a ring of fire and circled his body passing just over his head, intersecting with a ring of water that curved at an angle around his back, but there was no steam, or even bubbling from the water. The two elements danced in harmony.
She flexed her right hand. Five days ago she entered the attic to ask Hadrian what he found out about her mother. She found him surrounded by a semicircle of books, silver threads flowed from the books to form a triangle as they connected with his forehead.
She tried to touch him, to shake him out of whatever trance he was in, but the silver aura flared, burning her hand to the bone and blowing her backwards, so here she sat watching over a corpse, her mother's transforming body, and the man that saved them.
Dust swirled up from the floor, transforming into soil, before weaving itself into the intersecting rings, just under water. The window burst open, a miniature tornado swept into the room, snaking its way into the ring, completing a sphere around him.
Laura tensed as the sky outside darkened. Thunder shook the house. White flashes spotted the clouds, a bolt of lightning arced downwards, but instead of heading towards the ground it snaked into the window, wrapping itself around the other elements, intertwining with them like pieces of metal holding a cage together.
One by one, the books began to close and flow back to the shelf. When the last book settled back onto the shelf, Harry began to spin his eyes blazing a bright blue.
Laura hunched in a corner, she may not have a lot of metal in her body, but she had enough to put her at a greater risk than anyone else. The last thing she wanted is to be struck by lightning in a virtual stranger's home. She had to stay conscious to protect her mother. Right now, that was all that mattered, protecting her mother.
Her gaze flicked to Hadrian's glowing blue eyes, shining like miniature suns. 'What in the world is happening to him?' Her claws slowly emerged from her knuckles. 'And are we going to be safe whenever whatever is happening is finished?'
–XX –
Harry floated above his maze in the inner workings of his mind. His inner world had changed as he began mastering the elements, taught to him by elemental spirits of all things, spirits that were made up of the five elements.
Fire, the element of warmth, creation, and destruction for those who were not careful created a sun, giving light to the darkness beyond his maze. As he mastered earth, the element of the unyielding nurturer of life, land appeared.
Water, the element of life, the unwilling force that can wear away anything with time, was next, bringing forth rivers, grass, and trees. After the plant life, animals appeared. First, there were small birds, and then there were wolves, followed by bears.
Air, the element of freedom provided life for the animals, changing the sky from pitch black to pale blue, hiding his most precious memories from view.
The final element was lightning. The element was a combination of air and fire, an element of unstoppable destruction. With its mastery, robotic creatures of gears and metal rose from the earth and stomped their way into his maze, making it even more dangerous.
These changes fascinated Harry, but even more fascinating was what was happening to the stream of magic and Psionic energy above the atmosphere of his new world.
With a thought, he zoomed upwards, finding the two rivers almost completely joined except for a small red spec in the center. As he mastered the magical parts of the elements, the Psionic manipulations became open to him.
He now understood Pyrokinesis, Hydrokinesis, Geokinesis, Electrokinesis, and Aerogenesis. This seemed to open a new pathway within his brain. He now understood how to manipulate matter thanks to is alchemy training and understanding of transmutation. Other correlations between his magical abilities and psionics were being made, but to him the manipulation of the world around him was the most prevalent.
With all this new information, he was interested to see what would happen when the two streams finally merged fully.
He felt the books break the connection and float back to the shelves. He released a breath, the manipulation of the elements was some of the most in-depth he had ever learned. Not because it was complicated, but because each element had its own personality, and you had to know that personality to manipulate it.
The medical knowledge from the book of Asclepius was easy to learn, along with the control of sea life from the book of Triton, but some of the knowledge of the forge was blocked from him.
The knowledge was there, he knew how to make things, he could now forge more complicated and greater things with his mind, but manipulating already made technology was eluding him.
He wouldn't know how this translated to the outside world until he left his mindscape.
He glanced above him, it was time for him to leave, his work here was done for now. Closing his eyes, he released his hold on his inner world feeling his body fade away as he returned to consciousness.
–XX –
Harry uncrossed his legs, almost falling from the lack of feeling in the appendages. Steadying himself on a nearby table, he waited for the feeling to come back into his legs, wincing at the pins and needles.
"I take it you're okay now?"
Using the table for support, Harry turned, Laura stood at the far end of the room, her back facing of far corner, her claws glinting in the early morning light coming through the rooms arched window.
"Yeah," a sheepish smile spread across his face, "there was more knowledge in those books than I anticipated the medical stuff as well as the manipulation of sea life was absorbed easily, but the manipulation of the elements was a lot more intricate than I thought."
A frown slipped onto his features, he cocked his head to one side. He could feel the electricity running through power lines. A car drove by outside, he could feel the current coming from the battery and powering it. He reached out to the car, trying to use his control over the current as well as fire to stop fuel in the engine from combusting, but his manipulation was blocked. He could sense the mechanics working, but he could not manipulate them.
Theoretically, he should be able to manipulate technology with the forging art, but part of it was blocked from him. He could pull the electricity to him from a machine to manipulate it, but manipulating the electricity inside a machine was beyond him, the ability was there, he could sense the pathway in his mind, but it was blocked.
"Can you help Sarah now?"
"Sure," he said slowly, pushing the problem of manipulating technology out of his mind. He moved towards the center of the room, a grimace sliding across his face as he caught sight of Summer Scott's charred body, the bullet hole standing out starkly in the center of her forehead.
Stopping before Sarah Kinney's egg, Harry stretched forth his hands. White energy exploded from his hands sinking into the egg. After it sank into the egg it caressed Sarah before sinking into her skin, passed the layer of fatty tissue to muscle, nerves, blood vessels, then bone and bone marrow.
In the blink of an eye he had a complete scan of Sarah's body, "Whatever was happening to your mother is complete," he informed Laura, a faraway look in his eyes, "all that's left to do now is wait for her to wake up."
"So you can't tell me anything," Laura demanded. She had been waiting for almost six days, watching as he floated in the air the very elements curling around his body.
"Your mother's bones are denser, but also lighter, from what I understand they are made of small carbon fiber tubes packed together to form a honeycomb inside the bone. This will create very tough bones while allowing her to keep her speed."
"Her cells are healthier, dividing completely into a perfect copy of one another, suspending her aging. Her tissues are made of a similar material to her bones. The closest thing I can equate it to is carbon fiber sheets layered together to form a greater whole. Her new tissue will be resistant to injury able to give without tearing, her new muscles will be able to exert a greater force, but we won't know how much greater until she wakes."
"All in all, I would say she is going to be faster, stronger, and age slower once she leaves that egg."
"So, she's a mutant now?"
Harry shook his head from side to side, "No, she wasn't born with her abilities. She was changed by magic, so she would be what you call a mutate. Someone who was changed by an outside force, the end result is the same, you have someone with powers."
"Will she be the same person?"
Harry reached out with his mind, brushing a mental probe against Sarah's. "There's been no significant change to her thought patterns, but her mind is still in flux, so to get a true answer will have to wait till she's out of the egg."
"When will that be?"
The egg began to steam evaporating into thin air.
"Apparently right now."
As they watched, a nude Sarah Kinney gently floated to the floor.
Despite himself, Harry's eyes scanned her body. She was leaner now; lean muscle was packed onto her frame. Her breasts were bigger, and her hair had grown at least a foot, strands of it flowing over her shoulders to cover her nipples.
Her legs were longer, giving her more height, she now topped out at almost six foot.
With a wave of his hand, her former clothes adjusted to her new size appeared on her body, the green blouse stretched taut because of her larger bust. The khakis hugged her legs, revealing new curves.
The white lab coat had one button fastened over her naval, giving her a sensual but professional look. Her ocean of dark hair was now fastened into a tight bun at the back of her head, two strands framing her face.
Another wave of his hand, and Sarah vanished.
Laura opened her mouth to say something, but Harry cut her off, filling her mind with new information, "She's in one of the guestrooms."
–XX –
Sarah Kinney's eyes fluttered open, the blurry world coming into focus. She found herself staring at an unfamiliar white ceiling. A fan hung above her, its glass fixture molded to look like a single blooming flower with light bulbs acting as the petals.
Shifting her attention to the bed beneath her, she pressed down. The soft mattress gave under her touch, smooth sheets caressing her skin.
Alright, so she was in a bedroom.
Her hands roamed her body, tension draining her as she found herself fully clothed.
Her eyes widened as she found her bigger breasts. She sat up, her gaze locking onto the full-length mirror in the top right corner of the room. Swinging her legs over the bed, she rose to her feet, swaying slightly at the difference in height.
She grabbed one of the beds four posts to steady her. "What in the world happened to me?"
With halting steps, she made her way over to the mirror, eyes widening once she saw her reflection. It was still her, her face held the same shape, highlighted by a youthfulness that hadn't been there before. Her age hadn't changed, but her skin seemed to glow with vitality.
Despite the lab coat covering her frame, she could see the defined muscle of her body.
The door opened, Sarah twisted, her body swaying.
Laura cautiously entered the room, standing just inside the doorway.
It was then it all came back to her, the facility, Hadrian's rescue, the death of soldiers. Zander Rice his last act of shooting her with the trigger scent.
Her eyes became unfocused as the run down the hallway filled her mind; she remembered her heart hammering in her chest. The feeling of Laura's claws slashing at her back, an explosion of red.
"Laura," she breathed.
Laura looked up at her hands clasped in front of her, uncertainty shining in her eyes.
Slowly Sarah walked forward. Stopping before Laura, she placed her hands on the girl's shoulders, causing her to tense under her touch. She pulled her into an embrace, burying her face in her hair, "I'm so glad you're safe," she whispered.
Laura looked up at her confusion shining in her eyes, "But I hurt you."
Sarah ran her hands through her daughter's dark hair, "That wasn't your fault. It was the trigger scent," she shook her head; "we'll work on getting you immune to it."
Cautiously, Laura wrapped her arms around her mother, tightening her grip.
Sarah's eyes widened, Laura had never instigated a hug before, granted she had never been able to give her daughter proper affection for fear of being caught, but this was still an amazing milestone.
For a moment they stood there, reveling in the success of their escape from the facility.
Laura eventually released her embrace, stepping back, but staying within Sarah's range of reach.
"Can you tell me what happened after the flash of red light?"
–XX –
With Sarah taken care of, Harry stared at the tank holding Summer Scott. With a wave of his hand the tank transformed into a metal table. The understanding of earth allowed him greater control over other elements born of the material such as metal, silicate, glass, coal, gold, iron, or any other type of material born of earth. This understanding allows him to change it with just an image in his mind of what he wanted.
He could've performed the task before, but that would've required using more energy to make up for the things he didn't understand. Shaking his head, he focused on the body.
She barely looked human, more burned skeleton then living being, or former living being, his hand curled into a fist as he remembered the bullet impacting her forehead. "I'm sorry that happened to you, I will do my best to protect others for your sake. I will do my best to live up to my father's legacy."
Slowly raising his hands, runes formed into the edges of the metal table around the body. Curling things that looked more like fire then magic writing. Placing a finger to the runes, he forced in a trickle of power.
With a flash of light a thin pale wisp of rainbow colored energy rose off the body. Raising his left hand, he caught a vial slipping it in front of the energy. Holding the glass up to the light, he stared at the twisting energy within.
If the runes worked the way they were supposed to, this was the dimensional energy that resided inside of summer Scott.
According to his mother, everyone had a unique frequency their body radiated at depending on the dimension or reality they were born in. Hopefully with this energy, he would be able to make something that could find other refugees, or dimensional immigrants.
"That was impressive."
Harry turned, slipping the vial into his pocket while infusing it with magic to make sure that it wouldn't break.
Sarah strode into the room Laura by her side.
Harry waved his hand dismissively, "Minor magic. How are you feeling?"
"Great," Sarah flexed a slender hand, "Laura tells me my bones and muscle tissues have changed to become a stronger material, as well as my cells dividing to create perfect copies, giving me a longer lifespan."
"According to my scans that is correct."
Sarah glanced out the window, "I'll look into that more later," her gaze locked with his, "right now we need to retrieve my sister and niece from their home."
"Okay," Harry replied drawing out the word, "any particular reason why?"
"The facility has more agents than just what was in that one building. I want to make sure they cannot use my sister as leverage to get me or Laura back, especially now that I have been changed."
Harry stood there for a moment. He really felt he needed to use the dimensional energy to find any others Doctor Strange Fate may have pulled from other realities, but he also couldn't leave Sarah's sister to be attacked and used by the facility. Laura could probably retrieve them on her own, but he had started this journey with them, he would finish it.
"Let me get changed, and we'll go."