Ryn of Avonside

Adam, Duncan, Grace and I all phased back into the real world inside the old room again, and I would be lying if I said I hadn’t slammed my entry shield down. I did not feel at all safe in Avonside right now, and I was starting to think I never would while the CEO and her goons were running around.

No one was in the room, luckily. They’d have been splattered if they were. My resolve to protect my friends and the people of Avonside from falling into some sort of dystopia was growing by the minute. These people deserved to live happily.

“My phone is blowing up,” Adam announced, pulling his phone from his pocket. He took a moment to read it, then swore loudly, “Fuck. Ryn, we gotta move, like right now. The CEO has her goons out there fucking with the obrec. They’ve fired warning shots.”

“Right. Up, we need to go up,” I ordered curtly, making for the door without waiting for the others to agree.

“Shouldn’t we go down?” I heard Duncan ask, but Adam shushed him. “Nah, just do what she says. She knows what she’s doing, even if she don’t have time to explain shit to us in the moment.”

Good boys.

Now I just had to take everyone to go and deal with the bad ones. I’d never been a fan of cops, it always seemed like so many of them, too many of them really, were in it for entirely the wrong reasons. Campus cops like these ones were especially bad, because as far as copping went, they were the lowest of the low. These guys were living their wildest power fantasies right now.

We made our way up the building and out onto the rooftop. We all turned to look out across the campus, where we could see the obrec stopped on the other side of the cleared land that surrounded Avonside. We couldn’t see the cops from here, but we could hear the occasional pop of a gun going off.

“Put your hands on my shoulders or arms,” I told them all, gathering my power for one of many new spells I was probably going to have to use.

They did so, and I gathered my energy for what was an extremely showy little spell I’d come up with. I needed to look the part, after all. Delicate filigree vines of a silver crystal wrapped their way about my arms, then out over the rest of my body, covering it in a dress that appeared to be both jewelry, fabric and plant all at once.

Grace caught my eye with a look of surprise. I winked, “I’ll wear it for you later, don’t worry.”

Next, I did something infinitely less delicate and far more expensive in raw magic. I tore space into little pieces, stomped on it, and then spat on it for good measure. Which is to say, I teleported myself and everyone touching me across the distance between the rooftop and the confrontation happening outside the campus.

We appeared out of sight of the campus security, rematerializing behind a pickup that appeared to have been converted for use in the fields.

Quietly, to my friends I told them, “Look menacing.” Then I stepped out, head held high and back straight. I needed to project the air of someone who was a badass bitch, someone who owned everything around her by default. I needed to become the feminine embodiment of authority.

The obrec stood behind the cover of their wagons, with a bunch of militia alongside them. Troy was there too, along with Mer, Otho, Claih and the others. Wait, shit… one of the obrec rangers looked wounded. I gave a small nod to them, then turned to the line of blue opposite.

Wow, I think they had brought out every single one of their number. They had definitely been recruiting, because there hadn’t been even half that many before we were schwooped to the ring. Bunch of idiots made the wrong choice.

Some had makeshift uniforms and weapons, but all of them looked ready to fight. In their center behind a small honour guard was the CEO herself, looking the part of a stereotypical older white person who thinks the world belongs to them. She also had a megaphone.

“Who are you?” she asked over the intervening space.

“I am Rynadria of the Order of Eleos,” I told her simply, using my voice amplification spell, then threw a question of my own at her. “Why are you arrayed against those who have been invited into Avonside?”

I heard a derisive snort come through the megaphone. “I gave no authorisation for them to enter, and I am the ultimate authority within the campus. Stand aside and let me handle this situation, then we will speak.”

My eyes rolled so hard I thought I might pull one of the muscles in there. “Speak about what? I’m not going to agree to work with you. You don’t seem to be entirely reasonable, at least from what I can see given your response to the obrec here.”

“I am in charge! I am the one who says who may enter and who may not!” she exclaimed angrily, stepping out from behind her guards. Okay, apparently I hit a sore spot there. She seemed to sort of collect herself, her expression turning from anger to beseeching. “I am trying to lead this university through troubled times. Once we have our feet under us, then we can open a dialogue with whatever natives may be on this world, teach them.”

That did not sound good. “Teach them what, exactly?” I asked suspiciously.

“Well, how a polite society functions for one thing, frequent bathing for another. If they can be trusted, we will also teach them a few of the simple luxuries that technology brings,” she said, like it should be obvious to me.

“That sounds suspiciously like imperialist, colonialist nastiness,” I told her, feeling slightly disgusted. Because that had worked out so well back on earth. Actually… technically it had, just not for any of the native peoples who got in the way by existing on the land already.

“They are savages out there!” she exclaimed, sweeping her hand towards the obrec caravan. “They attacked us, killed good people! We fought them off, of course, once the element of surprise wore off. Guns have a way of deciding that type of thing.”

“You are in for such a nasty surprise,” I laughed, shaking my head ruefully. Guns were nothing compared to the power I wielded.

“You are beginning to try my patience girl,” she said, irritation pouring out of her like sweat. “Get out of my way.”

“No,” I told her simply. “You get the fuck back into your office and stay out of my way.”

“Do you not see my security?” she asked with a disbelieving shake of her head, gesturing to the cops around her.

I grinned, rocking my hips to the side and placing a hand down on them. “You can bring your army, yeah… but your army can’t bring me down.”

“Shoot her,” she told the cop directly to her left. The man didn’t even hesitate, raising his rifle to his shoulder.

Right, negotiations were over I guess.

I floated a few feet into the air, for the sake of dramatics, my arm rising to point right back at the guy with the gun. He fired, the ringing rapport of his weapon coinciding with the dull thump of the round hitting my shield.

They stared at me, dumbfounded. Well, some of them. I noticed at least ten who looked ready to bolt. Guess they remembered what had happened a few hours ago.

Short of my battle to the death with the mages, I hadn’t killed anyone yet. I didn’t intend to start now, but I was not about to be merciful here. Magic gave me a lot of options, and many were less than pleasant. This next spell was one of them.

Still pointing at the man who’d just shot at me, I flicked a dark projectile at him, the bolt of energy flashing across the intervening space from one heartbeat to the next. The moment before it hit, the projectile shattered like crystal, each shard targeting a certain piece of his body.

Blood exploded out of him, splattering the fields behind as he flew backwards. Every bone in his body that one might consider not immediately important had shattered under the impact of the shards, his skin rupturing in a spiderweb pattern alongside it. His scream as he hit the ground was chilling even to me, and I watched with a queasy stomach as his body writhed, twitching and spasming in the dirt.

Push the emotions down Ryn, focus on the job. Do not falter.

More projectiles followed, flickering out from above my shoulders like I had shoulder mounted missile banks. Cops all down the line were hit at random, the crack of bone and the spatter of blood like some sort of hellish anthem against authoritarianism.

The spell was designed to shock, to terrify with the damage it did and the screams of pain. It was a spell designed to rout an enemy facing a foe whose power was beyond their comprehension. It was designed to deal with them.

What they didn’t realise as their comrades dropped like popped balloons full of gore and blood, was that the same spell was also working on stabilising its victims. This was probably my most complicated spell, and I’d designed it with more than a lot of Esra’s help. This was another example where I was sort of breaking magic a little, but to get around the body’s natural shield against raw magic, I was injecting growth energy into the shards.

Sort of like a trojan horse, the growth energy rode the shards into their bodies. When the shards evaporated, the growth energy spread through them, healing and repairing enough damage to keep them from dying. Yet another avenue of magic that we needed to look into further.

Guns began to fall to the ground all down the line, shouted pleas for mercy drifting out across the trampled field. I let up on my barrage, pausing to see what the CEO would do.

She was staring in horror at the carnage all about her. Slowly her eyes drifted back to meet mine, something like hate kindling within them. She said something, but the megaphone was in her hand, hanging limp at her side. She brought it to her lips slowly. “You’re a monster.”

“I am reality,” I shrugged. “Avonside does not have time to deal with your petty attempt to play dictator. None of your people will die, if it even matters to you.”

She stood silent for several seconds, megaphone drifting down slightly before she yanked it back up to her mouth. “What do you want of me then?”

“The same offer you gave all those who didn’t want to stay in Avonside under your rule,” I said, hoping that the faculty and everyone would be okay with me giving orders. “You and your goons may heal and prepare, then you must leave.”

“Leave?” she squeaked, eyes widening in fear. “Go out there into god knows what filth?”

“You had your chance to act like a decent leader and human,” I shrugged, pretending nonchalance while internally I desperately hoped she’d take the offer. Seeing that spell in action had me slightly nauseous and I really wasn’t in a hurry to deploy it again.

It took her a long time to respond, turning to deliberate with one of her lieutenants. At least, I assumed that was what the big silly blue hat was about. Finally, she turned back and lifted the megaphone once more. “I accept your terms.”