Buck

“We are not going to overwhelm the young lady, are we?” Buck asked pointedly, and several hands dropped. Buck looked around and decided that Reynolds was most likely to explode if he didn’t get to speak. “Reynolds, you’re first.”

“Can you really do magic?” he asked.

Not what Buck had expected to be the first question. Autumn blinked in clear surprise. It must not be what she expected, either.

“Well, yes. I’m a proficient combat mage, a couple of you have seen that,” Autumn said.

Tanaka, Nguyen, and Miller all nodded fervently.

“I’m also capable of high ritual magic, elemental magics both combative and practical, and illusion. Among a few others,” Autumn added.

Another hand shot up, and Autumn pointed to Recruit Garrett, who asked, “Can we see?”

“Oh, of course.” Autumn nodded and grinned. She held her left hand out, palm up, and pointed with her right index finger. She traced a pattern in the air above her palm, leaving a faint, glowing line hovering over her hand for a moment. She whispered something, and a glowing, translucent rabbit appeared in her hand. She motioned, and the thing leaped to the ground, bounced around her once, and then proceeded to approach the recruits.

“You can pet it if you like,” Autumn said.

Buck nodded, and Tanaka crouched and reached out to stroke a hand along the thing’s back. It looked like a bit of fog in rabbit shape, but her hand seemed to be contacting something.

“It’s soft,” Tanaka breathed.

The rabbit bounced to the next recruit, who prodded it hesitantly.

“That is an illusion,” Autumn explained, “one I’ve been crafting for a while. I wrapped it in a small barrier spell, much like the one protecting your Enclave. I’m trying to give it a realistic texture, but a rabbit’s fur is hard to mimic.”

The recruits spent a few minutes playing with the illusion bunny. Buck decided his reputation could take one for the team and crouched down to poke the thing with one finger. Hey, he was curious too. The rabbit was soft, not quite like a real rabbit but closer in texture to a plush toy. The rabbit’s nose wrinkled and it hopped a little when he poked it. Curious, Buck picked it up. The rabbit had a little heft to it, and he wondered how something he knew was made of literal air and light had weight.

When Buck let the rabbit go, it finished its circuit of the group of recruits before returning to Autumn’s side and vanishing in a little cloud of sparkles.

“So, how intelligent was that thing?” Albertson asked. “Was it responding to us, or were you moving it like a kind of puppet?”

“It was operating off of its spell parameters,” Autumn replied. “Good question. It’s not ‘alive’ in any sense. It’s designed to respond to touch realistically. If no one interrupts it, the rabbit will circle however many people are in its immediate vicinity, do a couple of cute hops, and poof. I can direct it, much like a puppet, yes.”

“Ma’am?” Michaels said, hand raised. “Could anybody learn to do that?”

Autumn waved one hand slightly, “Kinda sorta. Making the illusion out of thin air like I did takes years of training and requires certain baseline talent than only, I think, five or ten percent of the human populace has. However! If I had something to write on, I could make a charm that would have the spell embedded. Anyone can activate a charm or artifact or use a potion. So, technically, anyone can do magic. Of a kind.”

“I have Post-Its,” Michaels said, holding out a little square pad of papers. “Would that work?”

“Post-Its?” Autumn asked.

Michaelson and Tanaka spent a moment breaking ranks to show Autumn the wonders of Post-It notes and then Sharpie pens, because of course she needed something to write with. Buck let it go. They weren’t lined up for inspection after all and frankly, learning that he and his recruits could maybe learn to manipulate some of this “magic” business was valuable.

Autumn drew a design onto a single Post-It. “For a more permanent artifact, you’d need to inscribe the spell into something longer lasting.”

“Like a rock,” Tanaka suggested, pointing to the translation stone.

“Just like. But so long as this page remains intact the spell will function.” Autumn handed the sheet to Michaels. “The activation key word is ‘lepu.”

“Oh. Uh, thank you,” Michaels said.

“It needs roughly five, ten minutes to recharge between uses,” Autumn added. “I can make more, if anyone else would like.”

“Maybe later,” Buck said before his base was filled with glowing magic bunnies. “Does anyone else have a question for the Champion?”

Jones raised her hand. At Autumn’s nod, she asked, “Can you get us home?”

Autumn tilted her head. “I believe I can, yes.” She paused. “I must be honest. This,” she waved one hand to encompass the base, “is nothing I have ever seen. It is as though a physical piece of your world was somehow deposited into the Unformed.”

“That’s not how these Enclaves are usually made?” Sanders asked.

“No. Most Enclaves are copies of places, rather than, well, this,” Autumn said. “Can you tell me precisely what happened? What you observed?”

“There was a storm,” Garrett answered. “Weird looking storm, turned the sky all weird colors.”

“Sergeant ordered us into the dorm, into the basement,” Jones added. “We sheltered there until things went quiet.”

“When we came out, it was like this,” Tanaka finished.

“Underground?” Autumn repeated. “How deep…”

Her voice trailed off and she doubled over, clutching her gut. There was a roar from the other side of the armory. The sound shook the ground and rattled the windows of every building in the base.

“Autumn?” Tanaka reached out.

“Something’s attacking the barrier,” Autumn gasped out. “Something strong.”