[Idea, Completion]

  The first thing I did the next morning was to check on Draco. I went to the lair and knocked so lightly, I didn’t want to wake him.

  “Come in, Rose.”

  “Hi, how are you feeling this morning?”

  “I’m fine, bit of a late start. But I’m heading out to coordinate with the gnomes and Woody in just a few minutes.”

  “Everyone is home, the war is over.”

  “That’s not possible, the gnomes didn’t have the numbers to take down everyone. You can’t leave even one of them standing Rose, they’ll just go back to their hole and find more desperate people to rebuild their army and they will attack again. Mark my words.”

  “We got them all Draco, every last one of them, including their general or leader, Rayan Artsiom the head guard from Veracity.”

  “How, tell me the whole story?”

  “It all started when I’d asked Doug for some battlefield inspiration so he played me the ‘Apocalypse Now’ scene 'Ride of the Valkyries'. The music was awesome but the visual of a teacher and all her students fleeing for their lives was horrific. The army men all callus, enjoying the destruction. Worried more about surfing than the peoples lives they’d just destroyed. What I don’t understand is how someone could watch a movie like that and then volunteer to go kill people.”

  “When they sign up, they think they are defending their country.”

  “How can going to another country and killing its people be framed as defending their country.”

  “Most of the time it can’t, but think of this, if we knew a month ago that Veracity was going to send an army here. We could have attacked there, the best defense is a good offense.”

  “But we didn’t know that Veracity was sending an army, they probably didn’t know until they were hired to do it. That sounds more like an excuse you could use to attack anyone you wanted, giving the justification that they were going to attack you, even if the other side hadn’t even considered attacking.”

  “Look we are way off topic, we both dislike war, just tell me how you ended this one?”

  “Portal Bombs.”

  “What exactly is a portal bomb?”

  “Did you see that rom com that Doug showed us about girls night, where they went dancing?”

  ‘Yes, it was dumb.”

  “Well they may have done some dumb things, but they had a brilliant scene where this ball filled with colored flecks of paper exploded and rained down on people like snow. Maz made me these balls that when they hit something they exploded and out flew little tiny portal drawings. When they fluttered down the people they touched were portaled to War World. Then any paper that lay on the ground, if someone stepped on it, they were transported to War World. Those took down the last eighty or ninety, the gnomes took out four of the leaders and Lu took out their leader with a well placed punch to the jaw.”

  “So no one died?”

  “No but I thought that you had, so please don’t ever let my selfishness put you in that position again. I was completely unreasonable.”

  “No, it was fun, like playing chess. If we didn’t have the no killing rule it’d be like playing chess with a toddler. Anyone of us could have beaten that army, with our hands tied behind our backs. I could have burned the entire army to a crisp and remained invisible the entire time. The gnomes would have massacred them the first night as they slept. The trees have the strength to rip them from limb to limb. I’m sure Lu could have taken out the whole army in a single night if she wasn’t constrained. Maz could have built a real bomb or rocket and killed them all in a matter of seconds. But now let’s talk about what you really did wrong?”

  “Was I too harsh with the Harris’s or the soldiers, I just didn’t want them in Tranquility Two.”

  “No, you used Nyx’s method of gathering ambient magic in front of Opal and Arjun and you even encouraged them to refill their magic. That was supposed to be a deep dark secret between you and I and Sparky when he gets back.”

  “You were severely injured, there was no way I was letting you die. Arjun wasn’t there when I started gathering the magic and having Opal refill her reserves. We should be teaching Opal how to do it, she is a healer and it will probably come up in the future that she runs out of her magic and needs more if she is to save a life. So by not teaching her we are putting people’s lives at risk.”

  “And by teaching her you are putting a big fat target on her back, for every evil magician in every reality. Do you want that on your conscience?”

  “No but won’t they just assume that she knows if she knows me and they know that I know how?”

  “Hmmm, that may well be true. You could take Arjun to one of your fictional worlds and wipe that memory, then we wouldn’t have to worry.”

  “Instead we’d need to worry that we lost our morals and that we’d psychically attack someone out of fear. Isn’t that just playing into your offense is the best defense justification."

  “Possibly but he is Titania's adopted son. What are you going to tell him when he asks you about it?”

  “How do you know that he is going to ask about it?”

  “I’d ask about it, wouldn’t you, Rose?”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Yes, I suppose I would and I’d also understand if the person said they couldn’t talk about it. That’s what I’ll tell him. I was taught confidentially by a demon. He knows that I know a demon, that she created a vast magical field in just minutes.”

  “Yes and everyone knows that demons make deals.”

  “She didn’t make a deal, she just freely taught me.”

  “Yes but you can dissemble a little, if it’s part of a demon deal, you’d lose your soul or your life.”

  “Or we just tell him. I kind of trust him and I definitely like him, he’s nice and a healer and from things he’s said, I don’t think he cares much for his mother.”

  “At least he has good taste.”

  “Let me see your wing.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s embarrassing. I really haven’t flown at an enemy in so long, I forgot the most basic instruction, don’t let them shoot your wings, it’s your most vulnerable point. No armor. And there I broke the next most important rule: never ever let anyone know your most vulnerable spot. I'm getting old Rose.”

  “Not nearly old enough, now let me see your wing, I want to see if it’s completely healed. Opal was just pouring magic into your body she definitely wasn’t targeting your wing.”

  He unfolded his wing and I could see that it was still raw. Then there was a knock at the door.

  Draco said, “Come in Opal.”

  Opal came in.

  “Hi sweetie, I was just going to come looking for you. Do you think you could do more healing or are still tired from yesterday?”

  “No, I’m not tired, my magic went up by ten percent since yesterday. I think because I kept refilling and then healing. Let's do that until Draco is one hundred percent healed, please.”

  “I’d like that honey, let's do it.”

  So that’s what we did, I gathered ambient magic and created large pools of magic, which Opal absorbed when she depleted her magic, just like yesterday. It went on for a few hours when Opal just stopped.

  “That’s it Rose, Draco you are healed.”

  “How do you know sweetie?”

  “I’m not sure, it’s almost like when the being I’m healing is hurt my magic just flows easily into them, but once the being is healed, I can still push more magic in but it’s a push instead of a flow. I think.”

  “That makes sense. About this refilling magic, we need to keep this secret until Sparky says it’s alright to let certain people know about it. If people ask me about it, I may have to lie until Sparky says it’s alright to talk about it. Now the three of us if you have questions or just want to talk about it, while we are here in the lair. We will always be happy to talk to you about it. Alright?”

  “Yes, Rose.”

  “Draco, what do you want to do today? Get some rest?”

  “No, while this war was on we’ve been neglecting Opal’s magic lessons so I think I should do that. You must have some things to wrap up.”

  “Yes, a few. But speaking of neglecting, between the farms and the war, Opal we haven’t written anything. So tomorrow morning let's do some writing together. I promise it’ll be fun. Writing is more fun the more you do, especially if you write for yourself. You write the kind of story that you’d like to read. I’d be willing to bet that is how Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings, there just wasn’t a great story with a wide variety of magical races that was also a grand adventure. So between now and tomorrow try to think of a book you’d like to read that hasn’t been written yet. Or maybe it has been but you just haven’t heard of it yet.”

  “Yes, Rose.”

  I portaled to the gnome colony, the guards were back to lounging while at their posts. Apparently they only stood at attention while a war was going on. If that is really the case, I’m so glad that they are back to lounging. One of them ushered me into the meeting room, then went to find the elder. Alvyn soon arrived.

  “Hi, Alvyn, I was just hoping to check on the status of our lawsuit, also the status of the Harris's land.”

  “Our lawsuit should be a done deal as of tomorrow. Funny thing, the Harris’s never bothered to come to court to defend themselves against our allegations. So unless they miraculously appear we will win by default. The town also filed a lawsuit against their estate, claiming it in damages and expenses in the war. The judge is likely to give it to the town, he lives out in the hills and wasn’t too happy to hear that the Harris’s had invited an army in to sack the place and install their son as the leader. Speaking of sons, those two are due for sentencing this afternoon, the prosecutor expects them to receive extremely long sentences in the mines.”

  “Now what can I do for the gnomes that won the war?”

  “Nothing Rose, at least for now, besides from what I heard you are the person with the highest capture rate. The gnomes averaged three to four prisoners taken, some a few higher and a couple only one. From what I hear, you entered only one battle, you initiated it and you also have the most captures, over eighty. Pretty darn good for someone who claims to know nothing about war.”

  “That was all due to Maz, he made the actual devices. It couldn’t have worked without him.”

  “To hear the gnomes tell it even after the device had exploded and took out the initial group, winking the ‘out of existence’ is the way one gnome described it to me. It continued to take out one after another as they moved into your direction.”

  “Just to be clear, no one was taken out or winked out of existence. Those were tiny portal drawings that those soldiers touched and they were portaled to one of my fictional worlds where hopefully they live long happy lives but they will no longer trouble us.”

  “So you adhered to the no killing rule even after your friend was almost killed.”

  “Yes, I can’t say that when I saw him lying there I didn’t wish that he’d just burned the army to dust, like he could have if I hadn’t asked him not too.”

  “No one can condemn you for a bad thought, Rose, you shouldn’t condemn yourself either.”