Shannon O'Reilly was bullied and everything his older sister wasn't. When his sister Sarah gives him a chance to change things through a single wish things don't go as planned.     I Wish: Book 5 Chapter 9 Stuck By Amethyst

We awoke and made our breakfast, or more likely brunch, around what I guessed was noon based on the position of that strange sun overhead. After eating some simple oatmeal with a bit of brown sugar and some dried fruit we stripped off our clothes and started to wash our laundry in the river as best we could since it was a pleasantly warm day. We did that in our Succubus forms so that we could be ready if any of the local predators or any other dangers decided to show up while we were occupied. I felt that our heightened senses in those forms would allow us to detect anything coming toward us before it became a danger.

While our clothes were hanging and drying we explored the forest around us to get the lay of the land and see what we could find that was edible. We found some nuts and berries that seemed ripe and didn’t taste bitter or cause a reaction when held against our lips or tongues. There were small animals around the woods too but they were mostly avoiding us, I think that they realized that we’re predators.

Not that either of us wanted to go around killing cute little woodland creatures, but we are omnivores and we needed to eat so we would have to start taking opportunities to get whatever we could that was edible. For now, it was far more convenient for us to fish while we had the river available though. Our very flexible and dexterous tails with their razor-sharp spaded tips certainly proved handy for spearfishing, and it gave us a chance to get used to using them as a weapon of sorts in case we needed to do so in a fight later.

I was extremely grateful for the lessons on foraging and hunting that the Faery of our troupe had insisted on giving us when we told them about this trip into the great unknown. It was as I finished cleaning the fish and placed them over the fire on skewers to cook that Rebecca asked, “Where’d you learn to do that? I never pegged you for the outdoorsy type. It’s kinda part of the reason that I was so jealous of you, you come across as so femme and I wanted to be like that.”

“Yeah, I grew up a total city girl,” I agreed with a laugh. “We were spending a lot of time with the Faery of our troupe though while getting in shooting practice and teaching Lisa to use her magick. They taught us to survive off the land; how to tell if something is poisonous, and how to fish and hunt and then prepare whatever we caught. They were worried about us coming here and possibly being stuck here for a while. I guess they were right.”

“Your troupe sounds nice,” she said with a sigh.

I nodded and let out a sigh of my own. I missed them, and I missed Ziralin, Ellie, Sarah, and the others too. “They’re amazing people once you get over the culture shock and their casualness about sex and nudity. I’m proud that they accepted us and made us a part of the troupe. They didn’t really trust me at first, they don’t trust most humans. You know, they could be your troupe too, Rebecca. Then, even if we can’t figure out something for you in our world, you would still have a place in Tír na nÓg.”

“You said that they don’t trust Humans though and you’ve mentioned before that Demons nearly wiped them out of existence. How could they possibly trust me? Especially with this whole Succubus thing? I know that we’re not real Demons but…” my traveling companion trailed off, looking at the ground.

“I can talk to them,” I quietly assured her while I kept an eye on our cooking meal. “We don’t have a Demonic Aura and they’ll be able to sense that. I changed you, so you’re my responsibility now, Rebecca. That kind of makes you part of the troupe already, it would just need to be made official. Lisa is my apprentice so it’s almost the same thing, and they brought both her and Michelle into the troupe before we left. They’re a very supportive and caring family group once they get to know and trust a person. There aren’t many of them left though, less than a hundred, and only a few of them are male, even after they awoke Beth’s brother’s dormant Faery-ness.”

When she spoke again it was tentative and she didn’t take her eyes off the ground. “I… they sound nice. It’s just… I don’t want to be stranded on another unfamiliar world. Maybe later once I knew them, but I want to go home, to our Earth and the familiar things that I miss, even if I don’t have anybody there.”

“Rebecca, look at me,” I told her gently. When she didn’t comply I cupped her chin in my hand and tilted her head up so that we were looking eye-to-eye. “I am not going to strand you or abandon you, on this world or any other. I promise that I’ll do everything that I can for you, I can remember what Xuriel did to change my records so I may be able to come up with an identity for you. If not we’ll figure something else out. I meant what I said last night, you’re family now and I take care of my family.”

“Wh… why don’t you hate me? The way I’ve treated you… I’ve given you every reason…” She trailed off again, her eyes teary and confused as she looked into my own.

I kept my eyes on hers, my expression and tone as serious as I could make them. “I’ll admit, you’ve made me angry and you’ve hurt my feelings a bunch of times. You probably will in the future too but what good would hating you do? We need one another and you don’t have anyone else. That’s my fault and I turned you into what you are now so I feel responsible for you. Family doesn’t always get along, Becca, but if someone values that bond the way that they should then they will always be there for you when the chips are down. Just like I will.”

For nine days we flew as far and fast as we could toward where I was sensing the pull of Ziralin from our bond. The strength of the pull was lessening by the day, even during those brief periods when Rebecca and I stopped to forage, hunt, eat, and rest so I figured that Elsaishe and Ziralin were trying to get to us as well. It was likely draining her, but I had the feeling that my fiancée was using her Celestial form and carrying Ellie.

Being one of the Faery, Ziralin could produce magick energy as part of her metabolism and use that to allow her to put that energy into using her Celestial abilities. She couldn’t store a lot though and it took time to build up in her system. So, since there was no ambient magick energy for her to draw on while in her Celestial form she was probably having to resort to quick bursts of flight whenever she had enough magick energy built up in her system to make it worth it.

Rebecca and I currently had a dilemma though, one that we were having a problem with solving. There was a colossal mountain range between us and Ziralin. The mountains were high and covered in snow and the range stretched as far as we could see in either direction. Going around would take forever but we wouldn’t be able to fly through without clothes a lot warmer than we currently had available.

My White Witch outfit would keep me comfortable in that kind of weather but it was completely impractical if I was going to use my wings. Rebecca had nothing at all that she could use. If only I had a little bit of magick energy. Even just enough to cast a warmth enchantment on our clothes would be a boon.

For the moment we were hiding in a village at the foot of the mountains as we considered our options and tried to gather information. Like what we had seen thus far from the inhabitants of this Plane, the village was, at best, stuck in the middle ages technology-wise. The streets were dirt, it smelled like raw sewage most of the time, and the buildings were either stone or wood and thatch.

We had been there for a week now after coming under the cover of night. We had the portable bunker set up on top of the tallest building in the village; a two-story-tall stone tower in the center of the village square that had no windows or doors. It was basically a tall pillar, roughly 12 feet in diameter. I suspected that it was just a big sundial of some sort since it was in the center of the open square and conversations I had heard from below us seemed to support that theory.

Regardless, since nobody was looking up we were well out of sight for our stay, eating food from my supplies, and taking turns with one of us sleeping while the other kept watch and wore the Rosetta Stone pendant to learn the locals’ language, in case we needed to try and join a caravan through those mountains. What little useful information that we had learned so far only made it that much more crucial that we get across those mountains. The locals spoke of a great city on the other side where people who they called the Makers lived.

These Makers occasionally raided smaller towns and villages like this one for slave labor to work in some sort of mines and supposedly they were capable of using the ‘earth power’ and that sounded an awful lot like magick to me. But then, to these villagers, our guns would probably be thought to be magick too. Still, I felt that this city might be worth checking out since we were heading in that general direction anyway.

In preparation for that possibility, now that we had learned enough of the language to converse if we needed to, we were practicing with our shapeshifting and trying to make ourselves look like one of the locals while the villagers below were turning in for the night. Their species seemed to be more active during the day and slept during the cooler hours of the night. “This isn’t working, Shannon,” Rebecca half-growled in frustration at another failed attempt.

She wasn’t the only one who was frustrated. We had both been trying for the past two days to make ourselves look like one of the locals so that we could blend in and get some actual information rather than listening to random conversations drifting upward from below. We had been able to change our appearances to look like other humans, Faery, and even some of the different types of Demons that I had encountered but we just couldn’t make ourselves look like the locals.

Finally, I sighed and shook my head. “Don’t waste any more energy. We’re not going to be able to get it to work, Becca, and I think I know why.”

She raised an auburn eyebrow and her near-violet eyes regarded me for a moment before she simply nodded. Since that first day in the forest she had become more comfortable deferring to my experience and letting me take the lead in things. So it was no surprise that she asked, “Why not?”

“Our curse makes us only able to take on female forms,” I replied simply.

Rebecca’s brow furrowed in confusion as she asked, “Are you telling me that their whole species is male?”

“No,” I clarified after a long sigh. “If they were male then I would be able to sense even small amounts of male tantric energy from them. Xuriel could sense it from men of all species when in full succubus form. It’s how Succubae track their prey; all men display small amounts all of the time but the more a man has built up the better the meal he’ll provide. I don’t think their species has two genders or physical sexes, They’re probably asexual, so they don’t have a template that’s compatible for us. And Succubae shapeshift by using a generic template of species that they have seen before and then just altering it within the bounds of the species to suit their needs. I can only turn into a Faery or the others species that we’ve been experimenting with because I’m familiar with them and you can because you’ve seen me do it.”

“Well, fuck. There goes blending in so we can join a caravan.”

“Yeah, and I was really hoping that…” I trailed off as I felt something familiar tickling the edges of my senses. Someone was using magick west of the village. More than one someone by the feel of the rapid-fire pulses of magick energy that I was feeling. I quickly snatched up the portal sheet and stuffed it into one of my zippered pockets as I explained, “There’s magick out there, Becca!”

I didn’t have to say anything more than that. Rebecca knew as well as I did that this could be our ticket to finding the others and getting home. The second that I had pointed out the direction she launched herself into the air and I followed as soon as the portable bunker was safely tucked away and the pocket zipped.

We soon found the cause of the magick I had been sensing. Four locals were running, or rather slithering, through the forest as fast as they could in the direction of the village that we had been holed up in, chasing something that blended into the night’s shadows. They weren’t dressed like the villagers in rough robes, but rather in shiny armor that reeked of magick and they were firing red beams at whatever they were chasing. I had a feeling that these were some of those Makers, or at least their goons.

As we circled downward to get a closer look Rebecca groaned. “I thought you said these people didn’t have modern tech, so why the hell do they have phasers?”

“They’re some sort of artefacts,” I replied, feeling sick to my stomach. “Items imbued with spells and powered by magick energy stored somewhere. The magick smells and tastes nasty. I think the light beams are for show but the spell is meant to stun and cause a lot of pain to the target. It’s a weapon to hurt and intimidate, and let the victim know exactly who is in charge.”

“So, bad guys?” Rebecca asked, her tone turning deadly serious.

“Yeah, bad guys,” I agreed. We already knew that these Makers took slaves and that and their choice of weapons didn’t exactly make them come across as the sensitive and caring type.

We were close enough now to make out what they were saying and a shrill voice called out. “Just shoot it, you hatuks! Do not let it escape as the other creature did! Sah Lortae wants this one as a pet!”

“We are trying! Lortae’s Light does not affect it!” one of the others snapped back.

Oh, that was interesting. And since I only knew of two beings that direct attack spells like that wouldn’t affect and knew for sure that one of them was across the mountains, that only left me with one other possibility. “Beks! They’re chasing Michelle! I’ll take care of these guys!”

“On it!” Rebecca replied before turning in pursuit of what I really hoped was our mutual friend.

While she was doing that I reached out for the enchantments on the weapons and armor of the bad guys and whatever was powering them, drawing all of that magick energy into myself. The feel and taste of it were awful but I’d absorbed much worse during our brief stint in Heil. There was a decent amount but not near as much as I would need to cast a portal spell to get to Ziralin, Sarah, or one of the others. Transport spells, in general, tend to use a lot of juice.

Still, it felt good to have a little in reserve, and now that their armor was little more than decorative and they didn’t have those nasty weapons, I could try to scare them off. I did the superhero landing, dropping down in front of the group. It’s a good thing I have that super regeneration thing going on because that’s really hard on the knees. They stared at me in shock and horror for a moment before trying to use their now useless weapons. “I’m afraid that I ate all of the earth power in those,” I told them with a grin and licking my lips. “You’re next.”

They looked uncertainly to their leader, but he wasn’t willing to back off, instead, he pulled a bladed weapon that had been hanging at his side, spurring the others to do the same. I knew that with my strength, speed, and other demonic attributes that I could probably take all of them, but I didn’t want to kill anyone unless I had to and I really wanted to catch up with who they were pursuing, especially if it was Michelle. So I decided not to waste time and, using as little magick energy as I could possibly put into the spell as I directed my will and said, “Sleep.”

A moment later they were all out for the count and I was running through the forest in the direction that Rebecca had flown off in, back toward the village. That was when I heard a familiar voice shout, “Demon!” It was quickly followed by a gunshot. As I crashed through the tree line and into the open I saw Rebecca falling from the sky, her right wing shredded by buckshot. She hit the ground hard but it looked like she was still moving.

Michelle and Lisa were standing well away from her and I could hear the latter say as I ran toward them, “Damn, that was a good shot, if I had silver or some of Shannon’s special shot I probably could have killed her but at least I clipped her wings. No time to switch loads but a shot to the head should do the trick.” Then she pointed the shotgun back at Rebecca and announced, “I’m Lisa, this is Michelle, and this is my boom stick. Any last words, Demon?”

I allowed my body to change back to my comfortable human form so they would recognize me and I wouldn’t accidentally whammy one or both of them as I shouted, “Lisa, stop!”