Cracks in Reality (Seams in Reality Book 2) (7 page)

"The perspective of a fresh instructor is always valuable."

Andrew and Charley exchanged worried glances. She also knew it would be a bad morning.

Tonya was smirking in a way that didn't make Andrew feel any better.

He finished toasting his toast. He splurged and put some jelly on it because he knew he might need extra energy. He didn't eat anything else though.

Everybody sat at the kitchen table and ate their small meals. Charley was dining on grape juice and a little bowl of oatmeal. Tonya had coffee and a buttered bagel. Keene had a fresh fruit salad, the most elaborate preparation of all.

"Did you fly in from Atlanta last night?" Andrew said.

Keene shook his head. "This morning."

"It's barely dawn now?"

"I like to make an early start to the day."

Andrew snorted in disbelief. "I guess so. How are things in Atlanta?"

"Quiet," Keene said. "Just keeping an eye out for Blake."

"Is the BPI having any luck finding him?"

"No. If they caught him, you would hear about it. Speaking of which, Tonya told me your special training is going even better than she had hoped. You and Charley should be ready to start searching for Blake in a matter of weeks."

"It's been hard," Andrew said.

"I'm sure, but the idea of sending apprentices to kill a master is pretty crazy on the face of it. It only make sense because you're extraordinary apprentices undergoing extraordinary preparation. Now, eat your breakfast. We have work to do."

Andrew grimaced.

Everybody finished their light breakfast in just a few minutes. Andrew and Charley quickly did the dishes.

The group went out to the foyer and put on their winter gear. As usual, Tonya's bizarre art collection caught Andrew's attention for a moment. One painting showed a beautiful woman with a large "pineapple" grenade shoved into her mouth. It was hard to believe an artist had actually painted it much less Tonya had purchased it.

When everybody was ready, they went outside into the bitter winter cold. The sun had barely risen above the horizon and was providing no warmth. A hard crust of ice covered everything including the sidewalk. Andrew held Charley's hand and took small, careful steps. He had fallen on the ice before and still had bruises to show for it.

The Fine Arts Building loomed directly ahead. Tonya was responsible for guarding the Theosophical Seam, so she lived right across the street. The building was two stories tall and clad in sand-colored limestone. Giant icicles hung from the edge of the roof creating a real threat to people walking beneath. The abundance of sharp peaks and Gothic arches always struck Andrew as excessive.

The group crossed the street and a parking lot, and they entered the building through a side door. They took a moment to knock the snow off their shoes before heading down the steep staircase to the basement.

The only sound in the basement was the constant rattle from the heating system. Tonya flipped a light switch, but only three quarters of the fluorescent lights came on because the rest were burned out. Andrew glimpsed a spider running on a pipe near the ceiling. Dry air made him rub his nose.

The sorcerers went to the big, steel door which protected the seam chamber. Tonya used her body to hide the keypad as she punched in a long sequence. Even now, she didn't trust another sorcerer with the passcode. It was ironic because Charley was getting powerful enough to break open the door with sorcery. Keene certainly could.

Tonya pulled open the door, and two BPI agents were sitting just inside. They carried assault rifles which were compact enough to fit under their blue jackets. The presence of the men didn't surprise Andrew. The seam had to be guarded twenty-four hours a day, and if Tonya wasn't around, agents took her place.

It was another security precaution which didn't make sense to Andrew. The agents certainly looked tough and were well armed, but they had no defense against sorcery. Andrew could've used mind-control on them even with the door in the way. The monstrous Theosophical Seam provided more than enough power to overcome the short distance. Andrew could've tricked the agents with an illusion. They were at his mercy, and he wasn't even a full-fledged sorcerer.

"Come back in an hour," Tonya told the agents.

They nodded and hurried off without a word. They were obviously glad to get away.

Andrew and Charley went into the chamber and sat at one of the small, wooden tables. Andrew had no idea what Keene would do to him, but a little preparation couldn't hurt. Andrew immediately began whispering the names of all the states in alphabetical order. The simple exercise would help clear his mind.

Tonya pulled the door closed, and it shut with a loud clang. Andrew didn't see where Keene had gone. There was no place to hide in the small chamber.

"Is Keene still outside?" Andrew said.

"He's standing right next to you," Tonya said.

He looked around again. "I don't see him."

"That's your fault."

So it begins,
Andrew thought.

Keene couldn't make himself physically invisible, but he could create the illusion of not being present. As usual in sorcery, it was a matter of belief. Andrew didn't believe he could see Keene, and therefore, he couldn't. The effect was all in Andrew's mind.

He turned to Charley. "Do you see him?"

"No." She shook her head. "Not even a glimmer. He's really good."

Andrew still couldn't detect Keene's energy either. Keene was doing an amazing job of hiding the invisible storm which always surrounded all sorcerers.

Charley gasped. Her face twisted.

"What's wrong?" Andrew said.

"He's... hurting... me."

She was clenching and unclenching her hands. Her wide eyes were staring at some imaginary horror in the distance. Seeing her in distress caused him sympathetic pain.

"Hey!" Andrew said to the unseen Keene. "Stop that!"

"Make me," Keene replied from somewhere in the room.

"Oh. Is that how it is?"

"Exactly. You must protect your girlfriend if Blake attacks her, so now is the time to practice."

Charley moaned with anguish. Andrew felt a rush of anger and flailed his arms uselessly at the empty air. Keene wasn't playing fair.

"Throwing a fit won't help you," Keene said.

He was right. Great sorcery required a methodical, emotionless approach. Anger would only get in the way. Somehow, Andrew had to ignore the fact that the woman he loved was suffering horribly. That was the point of the exercise.

He went deep into his own mind. He had an impenetrable fortress inside where nobody else could touch him. He always visualized it as a stone castle with outer walls a mile high. The blocks were a dense matrix of clocks and multiplication tables. The silence was absolute, and he could forget all his troubles.

When he calmed down, he returned to the world. He could see Tonya and Charley in the seam chamber, but Keene was still invisible. Andrew had to solve that problem first by dispelling the illusion.

Charley groaned again. He fought to regain control of his emotions before continuing.

He began working algebra problems in his head. Mathematics was absolute truth, and a formula was either right or wrong. There was no room for judgment or chaos. It was a good way to expel the influence of sorcery from his mind. He felt Keene fighting back, but Andrew was on firm ground now. With his enormous talent and Tonya's intensive training, he could break through any illusion, even one cast by a master sorcerer.

Keene began to reappear. He was a vague blur at first, but then details emerged. He was standing near the marble machine a few feet behind Charley. He was clenching his jaw so tightly, his cheeks were shaking.

Andrew stood up and walked over to Keene.

"Let her go," Andrew said.

"No." Keene snarled.

Charley cried out, rattling Andrew's composure. For a moment, he lost focus, and Keene vanished again.

"It's hard to protect the woman you love," he said. "Ancient instincts take hold, and you become just an animal defending its mate. To beat me or Blake, you'll have to be a man, not a beast. You must master the chaos that dwells within us all."

Andrew regained his focus and was able to see Keene again. The master sorcerer abruptly gave up on the illusion of invisibility, and Andrew could perceive him normally without effort. Keene's energy was also revealed, and it looked like a black thunderstorm swirling around him. Ordinary eyes couldn't see it, but to Andrew's inner eye, the storm was an intimidating apparition.

It was time for Andrew to go on offense. He tried to peer into Keene's mind but immediately hit a wall. Keene's mental defenses were strong.

"You have to do better than that, kid," he said.

Andrew narrowed his eyes. He could've punched Keene in the stomach or something to break his concentration, but that wasn't the point of the exercise. Andrew needed to show Keene what a war mage could do.

"There is that troublesome anger again," Keene said. "It's a good thing we're just practicing, or I would've killed you by now."

Andrew clamped down on his emotions. He began to apply relentless pressure to Keene's mind by hitting him with wave after wave of frightening illusions. Andrew projected the idea Keene's flesh was riddled with worms. Andrew flooded the chamber with burning lava. He sucked out all the air to create a hard vacuum. He made the roof collapse, crushing everybody below. It was enough to send a normal man into screaming fits, but Keene just grimaced.

"Not bad," he said. "Not bad at all, but these are just generic images, easily shrugged aside. You have to get into my soft underbelly. Find something that will upset me in particular."

"But I don't know you," Andrew said.

"That's not completely true. You know a few things about me."

Andrew tried to remember what he could about Keene. He was the chief psychiatrist at the Avanessian Institute for Emotional Health, a mental hospital. He dealt with insane people all day long. He had probably heard a thousand horrors stories, imagined and real. It would be very difficult to rattle him.

An idea occurred to Andrew. It was a nasty, unethical trick, but it would definitely work.
This is how sorcerers fight,
he thought.

Andrew recalled his memories of Keene's former apprentice, Serkan. He had been a young man, only a few years older than Andrew. Serkan had had thick eyebrows and a pleasant, round face. He had liked to wear nice, long scarves even when indoors.

Andrew created the illusion that he was Serkan. The projection was more complex than the ones Andrew usually attempted, but he was motivated.

"You failed me," Andrew said in Serkan's voice. "I was in trouble, and you didn't notice. Blake controlled my mind. The mighty Keene, master sorcerer and member of the Sorcerer's Tribunal, didn't lift a finger to save me from disaster. I died along with dozens of innocents. Blake is still at large."

It was a powerful image with a potent message. Keene's mental defenses wavered, and he completely lost his grip on Charlie's mind. She scrambled to reach the far side of the room.

Andrew took full advantage of the opening. He hammered Keene with an image of Serkan after his death. Andrew had seen the corpse firsthand, and the memory was still vivid. Andrew followed by showing Serkan rotting in the grave. That illusion was more fanciful, but Andrew drew upon all the horror movies he had seen.

Keene dropped to his hands and knees.

"Stop!" Tonya yelled. "Enough! It's over."

Andrew relented.

Keene staggered to his feet with a dazed expression. He mumbled incoherently, went to the door, opened it, and walked outside. Andrew sensed his energy moving away.

"Is he OK?" Andrew said.

"Sure," Tonya said. "He just needs a few minutes to settle down."

"I didn't mean to hurt him so bad."

"Don't worry about it. He expected to take a beating today. You were brilliant."

He smiled, but he had mixed feelings.

Charley came over and kissed him lightly on the lips. He tried to hold onto her, but she slipped away from him. He speculated she was still shaken from her experience.

"Thanks for saving me," Charley said, "but next time, could you work a little faster? I was hurting."

"I'll try," Andrew said, "but I was fighting a master. It wasn't easy."

"I know." She gave him another quick kiss. "And you really were brilliant, although what you did to Keene was pretty nasty."

He turned to Tonya. "Am I ready for Blake?"

"Not yet." She shook her head. "You showed some weaknesses that we need to work on. Keene didn't have to lose. You're getting closer though."

"How much longer?"

"Another couple of weeks maybe. Then you'll have to pass a final exam."

Andrew raised his eyebrows. "What kind of exam?"

"More realistic than today."

"How is that possible? Keene and I were really going at it."

"But you stopped short," Tonya said. "During your final exam, the fight won't end until it's over."

He gasped. "Who will I fight?"

"I don't know yet. The BPI hasn't told me. Now sit down. We have to get back to work. Andrew, your focus was terrible this morning. You had no game plan. You have to be one hundred percent intellectually engaged right from the start. I'm going to use delusions to put you into scenarios where you'll have to think quickly. Charley, you'll be with him. Work together and work fast. Got it?"

Andrew and Charley nodded.

He was suddenly in the cockpit of an airplane. A snow-covered mountain loomed directly ahead, and if the plane didn't turn soon, it would crash. He grabbed the control wheel and pulled back. It broke off in his hand.

"Oh, crap!" He looked at Charley who was seated in the co-pilot's chair. "What now?"

She grimaced.

* * *

Blake looked through a pair of binoculars at the headquarters of the Bureau of Physical Investigation. He didn't dare to get any closer. He wasn't aware of technology that allowed the BPI to detect sorcerers at a distance, but that didn't mean the technology didn't exist. The BPI liked to keep its best cards hidden especially from sorcerers.