Date 14/02/2060, Location 40.76916, 29.83439

The truck continued its journey east, leaving the wreckage of the courier truck on the embankment behind them, and powering on through the darkness. Away from the towns, there was little to no light, just the occasional glow from a farmhouse or isolated residence, glowing in the dark February night. The further east they went and the later it got, the lighter the traffic became as people made it to their homes or turn off from the highway, or headed to truck stops or rest areas for the night. As the team headed through a tunnel carved under a spur of mountain slope, Marius toggled the settings on the new deception gear. The truck groaned slightly as the smart materials flexed and warped under the direction of the controllers, subtly changing the outline of the vehicle. A second routine ran, and with a ripple of electricity a new colour and logo spread down their flanks. The truck that appeared out of the other end of the tunnel was similar to that which went in – but it was far enough off to throw basic sensors off their tracks.

In the back of the trailer, Tads stirred suddenly. She looked around, but could see only Shimazu working on the wards around another part of the golem box and the familiar trappings of her lodge – nothing that would alarm her. She extended her senses a little, looking into the astral. As the colour leeched away from the world, she saw the bright forms of the boxes, leaking astral energy from the contents in brilliant pulsing waves. Shimazu was a blazing bright light, the concentration and effort of his work radiating out from his aura. Around her, the brilliant tracery of fine lines ran over the surface of the truck, from one hand-drawn mark to another, encasing them in a dense web of power. But – still nothing – nothing to make her feel alarmed. No astral intruders had breached her ward. Nothing looked out of place or gave her any reason to be alarmed. So why did she suddenly feel so uneasy.

A feeling like a spill of ice cold water ran down her spine, congealing in a puddle in the bottom of her stomach. She swallowed, and looked around her again – still nothing. She'd only felt like this once before though… she leant over to the intercom and hit the button, calling out to the cab ahead.

"Um, I don't want to alarm you – but I think we're being magically tracked. Or at least, that's what it feels like to me. There's nothing here yet, but I've got a really bad feeling about this…" For a moment, there was silence from the front. It was broken by Kai's voice being relayed over the communicator.

"Ok, that's not great news – what do we need to do here? Hide? Stop moving? Go faster?" Tad considered for a moment, and then dragged through her memory, remembering what she had been taught back by her tribal elder over the years."

"Well, this means they have a group somewhere. Probably a group anyway – there's very few people strong enough to do a ritual with just one person. I mean, just one at their base – you always need a spotter as well. Someone astrally tracking, following the magical trace that is driven by the ritualist. I mean, you can use spirits – and sometimes they're ok – but they're not as flexible or reliable as a fully trained mage. So that means that there's probably somewhere between two and six people, in a lodge or a magical circle, concentrating their power on finding us."

"How though? I mean what are they looking for?" asked Kai.

"They could have something personal, that they've picked up somewhere along our journey. Some item of clothing perhaps, or a favoured gun or tool. An item of jewellery, or a picture. The more personal and important it is, the stronger the link is between it and the person they're searching for. At the least, they need the flavour of a mage." She heard the indrawn breath, and continued to speak, heading off the inevitable question. "Every person has a flavour to them – a unique magical taste. I've heard that hermetic mages refer to it as a signature – it fits in with their world view better to describe it like that. All numbers, and angles and things. But for me it's like a subtle blend of smells and tastes. Everyone tastes very slightly different, you see. The more of your body you replace with metal and plastic though, the more taste is taken away, and you become a bland and dead thing… But if you have the taste of a mage, you can find them through that – it's not easy, but it can be done."

"So should we try to hide somewhere? Somewhere with a strong flavour?" Kai sounded a little uncertain on where he would look for somewhere, but willing to give it a go.

"It's not as simple as that. Oh, find the right place magically and it can disguise or obscure your trail – sure. But the kinds of places you might do that, tend to have their own issues. That temple where we found Rocket and his team – that had a strong magical taste, and that would hide you from people looking – but then you'd be underground with that thing, whatever it was. Out of the cooking pot and into the embers, as my teacher used to say. There are some places that are ok – but most of them are not."

"Ahh, right. Yeah – let's not go back THERE or anywhere like it. I don't like the sound of that at all. So, we keep driving then?"

"I would say so – unless you have somewhere good to hide, the fact that you're still moving makes it hard to localise you. It's not really a matter of speed either – a mage can move as fast as their mind will think. When you're really good, you could fly from one end of the world to the other in a very short time – far faster than a plane or a something like that. But when you're searching, it's not really looking with your eyes… it's. Well, it's hard to explain. It's a feeling of a person, and a time and a place, all tying together as one. And if we're still moving, it creates uncertainty."

"Uncertainty is good – at least from anyone chasing us. So, if they find us – what can they do?"

"If the tracking is successful, then generally they have two options. If there is something magically active here, a foci or trinket that is magically active and enabled, then it exists on the astral realm as well. And that means it can be attacked from there too. If they're good enough, they can send a spell to such a thing, and make it a conduit into the real world, forcing their spell through here. The other option is that the tracking creates a trail or a link of magic between us. On one hand, we can follow that link back to them, and try to attack them – and that's the other reason most people try that in a group, where they can defend each other and have guards to aid them. The other option is for them to send their spotter to follow the link to us, and then quickly report back our position so they can try to find us physically."

"So, once they've found us, they can follow us forever, then?"

"Oh no – only for a few hours at most normally. You see, the longer the spirit is out of the body, the more the body loses the will to live. Most people can barely spend a handful of hours out of their body without their physical body starting to die. For those unfortunates who have had body parts replaced, it is even less time. But for most people, about six hours is the most you could spend out of your body, and even then it would make you feel lethargic and rough for hours afterwards. If you've not noticed, I try never to spend more time out of my body than I have to – and no more than an hour, unless we REALLY need to. It's just so much easier to recover from.

"Right. So, keep the magic things off, keep moving, keep the door shut to keep the ward up. Is there anything else we can do?"

"Well, I've just asked my spirit to guard us as well, and extended my mental shielding to cover the trailer. Beyond that – not really. I mean, you could maybe try a sacrifice or an offering, or a spot of mediation."

"Will it help?"

"It won't hurt. And if something bad does happen, you'll be much more centred and grounded when it does."

"Oh, great. That's NOT what I needed to hear, Tads." Kai sounded amused under his mock anger, clearly not actually meaning it. After a few seconds he released the intercom button and turned towards Hunter.

"Tell me about our route, please?"

"We're about here at the moment," Hunter clicked a command the screen zoomed in, showing a highway and a section of lowland hills, the road snaking around them as it travelled mostly northwards towards the coast. "We follow this all the way to the coast again, then turn east – pretty much retracing our steps the way we came. It's a pretty direct route, and it gives the advantage of having seen the road before and knowing roughly what to expect, which we figured was worth something. Follow this all the way back east to the border with the TCL, and then cross over and we're not far off. We're going to try and avoid going near that Warlord's camp – nobody wants to get shot at again I think. Other than that – pretty easy run. Marius rested a while, so he should be good for several more hours – but after that we're driving in shifts, keeping on going and trying to stay ahead of any pursuit or trouble."

"Excellent. Nicely done. So, how long are we talking about?"

"Altogether, we're talking about nineteen hundred kilometres or so, depends on any detours we might have to take. We've done a couple of hours so far, so we're about two hundred and fifty klicks down. It's going to take a while, but the tank on this is good for about fourteen hundred – so we will need to refuel, but only once."

Kai sat back and worked out the figures in his head, and then nodded. It was going to be pricy to fill up the tank if it was nearly empty, but manageable – and if they stopped only once and kept changing drivers, they should make good time…

They rolled on through the countryside, the temperature dropping steadily as the night wore on and the traffic slowly disappearing until they were the only vehicle in sight on the road. The barren landscape flicked past in the darkness and the team looked out into the wilderness, looking for trouble but thankfully finding none. Minutes turned into hours, and the position indicator on Hunter's map steadily tracked north towards the sea as the truck trundled on at a steady hundred kilometres per hour.

In the trailer, as the hours passed Shimazu finished the individual wards he'd scribed onto the outside of each of the boxes, and stood, cracking his spine and stretching to work out the kinks in his back. Tads checked each of them, finding the wards to be well placed and secure. Though not strong, the effect would last for some time, and she figured every little bit of extra protection was worthwhile. Besides, it was good practice, and the better Shimazu became, the more help he would be to her in keeping the team safe from magical assaults.

Up front, Marius continued to keep up a steady pace, his attention working in a cycle through activities – checking the sensor, visually examining the road, monitoring the engine temperature and fuel consumption, looking for electronic noise, making sure Hunter hadn't uploaded a route change – round and round, constantly examining the world around them as they rumbled through it. They passed the Karasu park where they'd thought about talismongering, and as the road veered down towards the sea, a thick mist drifted in on the moisture rich night air. Slowly the road disappeared, but he never slackened his pace – instead concentrating more on his radar and other vehicle sensors to guide him unerringly through the darkness. On and on they drove, past Eregil, where the mist enveloped the steelmill in tendrils of cold, driven back around each building and furnace making them look like volcanic islands from a nether realm, the mist given a strange red hue as it reflected the molten steel. The mist lifted as they drifted inland, following the main road as it wound up into the hills, then descended upon them again like a cold grey blanket as they dropped back to the coast road on their journey east. Village after village they sped through, barely noticing some of them in the thick fog, until shortly after 3am. They'd just twisted back inland, and had passed through the small village of Denizbuku, and had slowed slightly as they climbed up a sharp bluff, the road winding back and forth in a series of sweeping turns to make the approach more manageable.

Aswon called out, having spotted a figure on the road ahead, radiating magic, whilst at the same time Marius picked up a selection of traffic cones, their radar reflective covers causing his sensor screen to ping like crazy. He slowed as the cones forced him into a tricky S-shaped curve around the already sharp bend in the road, shedding even more speed. Aswon peered at the figure, standing in the road without a care, waiting for them it seemed. His aura radiated power – he was magically active but wasn't masking his form at all.

Kai leant forward to get a look, and they told the pair in the back what was going on. Moments later Tads hurtled forwards out of her body, speeding past the truck towards the figure, then screeching to a metaphysical halt next to him. He turned towards her, obviously aware of her presence, nodded politely and smiled at her. He didn't seem to be particularly threatening, and he made no hostile move. She examined his aura herself, gauging his power against her, and trying to determine what abilities he may possess.

"Hello? Are you waiting for someone?"

"As a matter of fact yes, but they're nearly here. I'd really much rather speak to all of you at once – or at least to your team leader and his escort. It'll save repeating myself." Tads blinked, and stared at him for a moment. His accent was cultured and refined, and he didn't appear excited or angry – in fact he didn't appear to have any really strong emotions. She darted back to her body, managing to meld with it relatively easily at this low speed, then fired up the intercom.

"Folks, it seems he's waiting for us, wants to speak to the team leader. He didn't feel particularly excited or anything at all. But he's more powerful than I am, and I didn't really get a feel for what he could do."

"Well, decide what you want to do quickly, because I'm either going to have to stop, or run him over and murder him in about twenty seconds," exclaimed Marius through the speaker.

"Stop, let's talk, if talking is on the menu. Tads, be ready with a spirit, please. Shimazu, get ready to back us up if we need it. Hunter, covering fire." Kai pulled on his coat as he spoke, and got ready to dismount from the vehicle.

"I will come with you, to protect you." Aswon grabbed his coat as well, and then his Purdey and his spear. He sounded as if he wasn't really going to listen if Kai said no, so Kai didn't bother. Instead he turned to the others.

"If this all goes wrong – drive off and leave me if needs be. Get the job done."

As Marius let the slope of the road bring them to a halt, they both climbed out of the truck and walked up the dark and deserted road towards the man, until they were about five metres away, then halted.

He was of middling height and fairly slender, and appeared to be in his late forties, perhaps. A short beard and moustache were dark with wisps of grey scattered through them, and he wore an old-fashioned set of spectacles – almost unheard of in the Sixth world where corrective surgery was so easily obtainable. Dressed in a dark business suit over a light blue shirt, with a tie neatly fastened at his neck, he looked like he should be discussing a corporate deal over coffee in a downtown restaurant than meeting with a team of smugglers in the dead of night on a deserted mountain road.

He bowed slightly as they looked at him, and they caught sight of the kippah placed on the back of his head.

"Good evening gentlemen. My name is Mr. Goldstein. I am aware that you have in your possession, some items that do not belong to you. However, my friends would very much like them back. Can we come to some arrangement?"

"We have a lot of stuff, and much of it doesn't belong to us. Can you be a bit more specific?" Kai asked lightly, while he examined Mr. Goldstein closely, listening to his word choice and watching his body language. Mr. Goldstein sighed a little, then spoke again.

"A number of boxes came into your possession a few hours ago. Six of them. I am also aware, that you did not steal them, and you are not purchasing them – you are just carrying them from one place to another. And that is the reason why I am here, asking you for their return. Politely. Calmly."

"Ahh, right. I see your problem. Well, you sound like a businessman – so perhaps we can come to an… arrangement." Kai watched as Mr. Goldstein cocked his head slightly to one side. "We agreed to deliver our cargo – whatever it is – to a certain destination, on time. We hate letting people down – it doesn't do our reputation any good, and it makes us disappointed in ourselves. So we really don't want to do that. But if you were to… follow us? To wherever we stopped… once we'd handed it over, it's not really any of our concern what happens to it from there."

"I see. Well, I'm afraid that won't really be possible. Much as I would perhaps like to discuss that concept further, I find myself in the position where time as a resource is very much in short order. A very precious resource. So I ask again, will you return the items to us?"

"I'd love to help you out – you are being very polite after all – but I'm sorry, we really can't." Kai responded equally politely, keeping his tone and inflexion light, as if he was discussing who was to have the last slice of cake at a meal.

"As I said – time is a resource that is in very short supply. However, we have other resources that are available to us. Perhaps some of those might help? I can imagine that you have accrued some expenses in your journey – perhaps fifty thousand Nuyen would go some way to offsetting those losses and any potential damage you might suffer for non-delivery?"

Kai shook his head, and the calm expression on Mr. Goldstein's face slipped a little, as he frowned at them.

"Listen, it's been lovely chatting with you – perhaps I could take your number, and we could call you if anything changes?"

"No." Mr. Goldstein spoke clearly, but emphatically. "This was your chance to end this, here and now, without trouble."

Kai let his facial features relax a moment, then he too frowned, becoming equally stern looking. He controlled his features carefully, mirroring the changes Mr Goldstein had displayed, but kept his voice light.

"You had me, all the way to 'trouble', my friend." Kai turned on his heel and headed back to the truck, not looking behind him at all. Aswon started to retreat, carefully picking his way backwards and keeping a careful eye on the stranger. As they got to the truck, Aswon gave Mr. Goldstein a small bow of respect, then they both climbed up and into the cab, watching as Mr. Goldstein calmly walked to the edge of the road and pulled out a small book and began to read it. Marius started the engine and they rolled past him, picking up speed as they cornered through the cones and back out on to the straight road, accelerating hard.

Tads called over the intercom.

"I had a good look at him – I'm afraid I'm not really sure what he could do, but he was definitely more powerful than I am, in terms of raw ability to control magic anyway."

"I recognised some of his abilities – I share them with him. His senses were enhanced magically – he could read in the faintest of light I would wager, and his hearing would be like that of an Owl. He also would be a hard man to surprise or creep up on, and you're unlikely to get the drop on him. As to the rest – I don't know." This from Aswon.

There was a thump behind them, as Hunter collapsed back into his seat heavily. He seemed pale and tired, a slight sweat beading his brow despite the lack of physical exercise. They checked up on him, and discovered he was as wan and lethargic as Shimazu had been the other day. Suspicious, they got him a drink and gave him half a dozen of the iron tablets they'd gotten from the pharmacy in Constantinople, and watched as he leant back into his normal corner and drifted off to sleep.

"Did anyone see anyone else back there, or just the one guy in the road?" Tads called over the intercom. There was a murmur of negatives, and Aswon asked why.

"I just wondered if someone could have approached the truck from the back, and put a homing beacon or tracking thing on us, while we were distracted at the front?"

"I don't think anyone else was there – I didn't see anyone – but it's a good idea to check, just in case." Aswon looked around at the darkened road. "Do we want to pull over and check?"

"No, I think I've got this. I'll ask a spirit to look over the truck, and see if it can spot anything new. Or anything stuck on with a magnet or tape. Hopefully it will find it."

She sat down on the floor of the trailer cross-legged, letting her body sway slightly with the rocking motion of the trailer, and summoned a watcher spirit. The astral being appeared in front of her, and she gave a start and leant back in surprise. Instead of the vaguely humanoid thought forms she normally got, festooned with branches, moss, lichen and other forest growth, this spirit appeared in the form of a wizened old man, dressed in a smart black suit, with close-cropped curly brown hair and a kippah on the back of his head… She frowned and concentrated on it for a moment, checking that it was actually her spirit – it wasn't something from outside designed to mess with her head – but it tasted just right, and was definitely hers.

She commanded it to go and search the truck and trailer for devices, and it gave a very world weary sigh, shrugged its shoulders and then wandered through the side of the truck to start clambering over the wheel arches, clinging onto the surface of the truck with only scant regards to gravity. Tads through about telling the people in the front of the truck about the strange sight, but in the end decided they probably wouldn't understand. She sat back instead, thinking about the strange appearance of the watcher spirit and what it meant.

Up front, Kai got the number of Marius' contact in Tbilisi, and gave him a call. It rang, and rang, and just at the point where he was about to hang up, it finally connected. A very sleepy and groggy sounding voice answered the phone

"It's half past three, this better be good."

"And a good morning to you, too. This is the courier company – we have your package, but there's been a development." The line went quiet for a moment, then the video feed flicked on, and a bleary-eyed face could be seen in the dim light of a bedside lamp. The face leant in towards the display until it filled the entire frame.

"What kind of development? Nothing bad, I hope?"

"Well, that kind of depends. We met a man on the road, middle of nowhere, said that he knew what we had, and knew where it was from, and he wanted us to hand it over to him."

"And?"

"Well, we said no, of course. Then he offered us fifty grand to hand it over, for our troubles. So we still said no." The face at the other end of the vid-link looked relieved.

"Well, that's good news, then, right?"

"No, not really. They still found us, really quickly – or knew which way we were going. And he said that there was going to be trouble. So we figure they're tracking us somehow, and plan on hitting us. So this is not a luke-warm job – it's most definitely a hot job. And likely to get very hot indeed, if they're hitting us at the handover point. Do you want to make other arrangements?"

"No – why didn't you just shoot this guy in the face and be done with him."

"We had a horrible feeling that it wouldn't have worked. He was clearly magically active, more powerful than our mage, and happy to just stand in the road and wait for us to stop. We're thinking that you might want to rethink this thing…"

"Just deliver it as planned. That's what I'm paying you for, right? Right." With that, the line disconnected, leaving Kai staring at the display as the telecoms provider started to show adverts on the screen.

"I'm not dying to deliver a box," a very sleepy Hunter said. He sat in the corner, and his eyes were still shut, but he was apparently awake enough to follow the conversation.

"I will. I don't want to – but I would if I had to. That's what we're being paid for." Aswon said quietly, his eyes scanning outside the truck. It went quiet for a moment, before Hunter replied.

"I don't see why we should put ourselves at risk for this, is all."

"Then what is he paying us for? If he just wanted something sent, he'd use the postal system, or a normal courier. But he's paying for safety, discretion, and if need be for people to fight to defend his stuff. That's why we get paid tens of thousands for a job like this, not two hundred Nuyen for a pallet ship. It's part of the contract – and if you don't want the responsibility of the delivery, then you don't get the rewards of the job."

Kai and the others nodded, agreeing in the main with Aswon. Hunter shrugged a little, and then turned slightly, resting his head on a balled-up t-shirt and chuntered quietly to himself – quietly enough that nobody else had to listen to him at least.

"I've got an idea – what do you think of this?" Kai called out, pushing the button for the intercom so the two in the back could hear him as well. "We actually get the boxes shipped over, by a normal courier – well actually, by five normal couriers. One part to each of them, and one part with us as insurance?" The team considered this, but from their facial expressions and the indrawn breaths, it was obvious they weren't keen on this as an option. The team felt on edge – wondering just what the fallout was going to be from their meeting with the mysterious Mr. Goldstein.

Marius pulled up the sensor footage, replaying the audio and video feeds captured by the truck during the encounter, and they watched through it several times, looking at the body language and mannerisms of their adversary. The second, and third, playback did nothing to lighten their mood – he seemed competent and composed, calmly laying down the options available to them and not being fazed by their responses. He also showed no fear for his personal safety – or had a cast iron backup plan. Playing through the approach again, he'd shown no fear or regard for the oncoming truck, and appeared supremely confident that it was going to stop. They played through the recording again, several times, looking for clues.

After some time spent analysing the recording, they weren't much better off – he had an excellent grasp of English, probably gained at a University, but dressed and spoke in a style consistent with their knowledge of Israel. After Tads, Shimazu and Aswon compared notes on their read of the man, they thought that he had some abilities in common with Aswon, but a whole host of abilities that none of them had or had seen, as well as more raw power than any individual member of the team. His composure was also admirable – possibly as a result of some magical ability, possibly due to unseen snipers or backup in the darkness that none of them had seen, or possibly just due to having enormous brass balls.

"Maybe we should change route?" Aswon suggested "They found us once, sure – maybe they got lucky. But if we radically change our route, head far inland instead of following the coast road, then perhaps we can throw them off the scent?"

"I don't like that idea – it takes us away from a lot of civilisation," The speakers carried Marius' accent clearly, even though he was actually speaking from a neural interface directly wired into his brain-stem. "If they're near a well-travelled route and decide to hit us, then there's limits to what they can get away with. If we go out into the wilderness, then the gloves can come off and they can throw all kinds of crazy stuff at us, and nobody will even hear it – let alone care about it."

"Hmm, you have a point there. When I was on duty as a merc, we always had to be mindful about civilians and the press when engaging targets. If we're away from the public eye, they can be a lot more indiscriminate with their attack."

"Yeah, and if we've offended people with reach and power, that includes things like attack helicopters and rockets, APCs and miniguns… all of which are very bad news."

"It doesn't even have to be a military response, though, does it?" came Tads' voice over the comm-link. "I mean, if they just got onto the police and pulled strings – and they reported us as being in a stolen vehicle or something…. Sure, they have someone else involved, but they get access to all those eyes and ears as well, don't they?"

The team sank into their chairs, pondering the mission that had seemed a little simpler when they took it than it did now, looking out into the darkness and keeping their eyes opened. After a while, Aswon had an idea, and asked Nadia to go into the back for some supplies, and when she returned after a few minutes, twisted round in his seat to face her as she sat in Tads' normal spot. Over the course of the next half hour, he slowly and patiently explained to her how to make simple demo charges from the blocks of C4 she had collected, pausing every few minutes to stare out into the darkness and look for magical presences.

They drove on, following the coast road and heading eastwards. The dense sea fog rolled in off the water, washing out the world and gaining in density to the point that they had to slow a little as the vehicle sensors started to get the odd false echoes from the moisture in the air and the road became slick and dangerous. Fortunately they didn't have to slow much – Marius' skill as a driver saw to that, but none the less, their ETA ticked slowly higher as they lost a little speed as the road wound back and forth along the coast.

The black sky started to become grey with the faint light of the pre-dawn, the sun still below the horizon but the light bouncing off the atmosphere and arriving as the herald of a new day. The truck slowed significantly, and Marius roused in his seat, no longer fused mentally with the machine but now driving it like the others would have. He smacked his lips a few times and swallowed, trying to get saliva into his mouth after hours of lying with his body almost comatose, then spoke in a croaky and dry voice.

"Nadia, any chance you can sort me a coffee out? Black and strong?"

She turned and smiled at him, and reached over to touch him, flipping her hand over at the last moment to gently push against him with the back of her hand, avoiding getting the clay-like C4 that coated her fingertips into his clothes. She turned further around, and looked at Kai, staring at him until he made eye contact.

"I'd like one too, Kai, thanks. Milky for me though, no sugar. Thanks."

Kai looked like he was going to argue for a moment, but then shrugged and threw his arms into the air.

"Whatever, sure. Coffee bitch…." He climbed through into the back, past Hunter who still lay pale and wan, but with a smirk on his face that indicated that he wasn't quite asleep, and started to rattle around at the heater getting a round of hot drinks on the go for people.

The minutes crept by, and after drinking his coffee, Marius jacked back in fully and they picked up speed again as he pushed the truck through the mist and drizzle and around the turns of the road. The sky lightened some more, and then the first ray of sunlight arced across the land, refracting and dispersing through the mist until the entire sky to the east was a mass of roiling golden clouds.

In the trailer, Tads felt her previous spirit leave as night transitioned to day, and sat herself down in her lodge, trying to let the swaying of the vehicle wash through her as she completed her morning prayers and prepared to summon a new spirit to protect them for the challenges to come. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she opened herself up to the mana around her, drawing in power to channel into the summoning rite. She wanted a moderate amount of power, to summon a spirit of average size – something small enough not to hurt her with the backlash of power from the ritual, but large enough to be useful.

The motes of mana flowed down through the air, invisible to even those with the astral sight, flowing down towards her outstretched hands, swirling into her palms and racing through her body towards her core to be coalesced into a being of pure magic, a representation of the place imprinted with her ideals and the power granted to her by her totem. Shaped by her will, and controlled by her ego, she walked a fine path of balance between what she felt she could control with her beliefs of self and what would be 'too much'.

The motes flowed through the air, twisting and turning – and accelerating. They formed together into chains, like a handful of beads on a thong. They jostled each other, coming thick and fast, and the presence of one increased the speed of another. More and more of them joined the headlong rush towards her astral form, sleeting down through the roof of the trailer and in through the walls, like a pipe with a burst tap, pouring uncontrollably into her. She felt the power rush into her, more and more, faster and faster; and she was unable to stop it in time.

The spirit appeared, huge and hulking – nearly twice as large as she'd been aiming for. It was her spirit – definitely a spirit of man, a creature of the road – not a twisted form like the watcher she had summoned earlier. Its immaterial form looked like large strips of tarmac dug up and formed into rough-hewn arms and legs, and the body was patterned with white lines and road markings. The head was a round blob of gravel, with two sets of cats-eyes on either side of the wide and rough face, staring at her. She had a moment to glimpse it take shape, and to bring it under her control, then the surge of power backlashed into her.

WHAM!

Blood spurted from her nose as the effort of controlling the power ruptured minor blood vessels, and she went temporarily deaf as her eardrums popped from the pressure. Her joints ached all over as blood pooled in them from a multitude of burst capillaries. The pain struck her by surprise, her head tilted back and she gave a howl of pain, sounding all the more animalistic from the sheer shock of the event. Shimazu rolled to his feet in surprise, his sword appearing into his hand as if summoned, as his reactions and abilities activated from shock and he moved like a blur. He looked around frantically, seeking that which had struck the shaman, but he could see no foe.

"It's….. o…k…. Shimazu. Aaah. Just…. Just a bit of…. Unexpected drain, from the summoning. Ahh, ow!" She tested her joints, finding the damage widespread, and moved her fingers to her nose, holding it shut to allow the blood to clot, breathing heavily through the mouth.

Shimazu leant on the comm button, and informed the cab what was going on, and they spent a few minutes deciding what to do. Shimazu checked her over, giving a running commentary to the team in the front of the extent of her injuries – reporting that he could try and bandage up the bleeding and the obvious stuff outside, but that most of the injury was internal, and that he didn't think that he – or any of the others – would be able to do much. He did open the tub of painkillers for her, and passed her a small mound, along with a bottle of water, and watched her swallow them gratefully. In the end, they decided to push on – it seemed that it was the best thing in the absence of being able to actually help her.

Tads sat back and realised that she didn't have the normal mild headache she ended up with after summoning a spirit or casting a spell – the power had been enough to batter her body instead of her mind. Hmm… that opened up a different alternative.

Slowly, and very carefully this time, she opened herself up again and drew in Mana to use, shaping it into a cocoon over her body. This time the power flowed as normal, as she would expect – and she concentrated her energy on renewing the processes of her body. All around her, golden light radiated, bathing her skin in a soft, warm, golden glow. Internally, the magical energy drove the cells into a frenzy, vastly accelerating the healing process. A thousand different burst blood vessels knitted together, binding cells walls and scavenging damaged tissue, whilst red blood cells multiplied and flowed around her body, carrying away the dead tissue to the kidneys to be processed.

She pushed harder, directing the golden energy to repair the damage she'd taken, until she felt she could do no more – then braced herself as the backlash recoiled into her. Despite the painkillers, she felt the edge of the normal tension in her head…. Ahh, there it was. She relished the headache, welcoming the familiar feeling. Slowly she got up and moved around… it appeared that she had fixed most of the damage, and felt almost back to normal – almost. Just a little residual stiffness around the joints. Hmm.

She sat back down and studied the spirit she had summoned, trying to work out what had happened and why it was so powerful. She didn't know, but her eyes kept sliding off the spirit and onto the boxes of golem parts, lying innocuously on the truck floor.

The truck pushed on through the brightening morning – once more having to slow as farmers, shoppers and commuters started to fill the road travelling from one town or village to the next, with their varying levels of skill on the slick wet roads. At around 08:00, after nearly eleven hours of travel, they drove through Samsun, emerging from the east side of the town and starting to climb up slightly and rising out of the fog like a shark emerging from the depths, heading towards the quasi border marking the edge of the Kurdish Zone.

Once more, the team studied the terrain around them and started to keep a careful watch on the area, weapons ready in case of attack.