Mark of the Fool

What was the Traveller’s power?

On the surface, it was teleportation: transporting oneself instantly from one place to another.

But was that truly the core of Hannah’s power?

Alex doubted that it was; the Traveller’s power wasn’t just about teleportation. Before he’d even used her strength to teleport himself, it had enhanced any teleportation spell that was cast on him, and it had improved the strength of his summoning spells, allowing him to call creatures across the boundaries between planes with ease, even from the beginnings of him using summoning.

Hannah and Kelda had used it to create permanent portals, and the Saint of Alric had even made her energies hostile to Ravener-spawn, letting it melt them if they so much as touched one of the portals in her Cave.

Those things went beyond teleportation.

‘Hannah was able to use her power to cross between the boundary of life and death,’ Alex thought. ‘And from what Baelin said, that’s supposed to be impossible, even for gods. Yet, Hannah could transport herself and Carey back to the material world by using my soul as a beacon. She could travel between the boundaries of life and death.’

Even as one stream of consciousness worked through his understanding of Hannah’s power, the others were absorbing the guidance that the Mark of the General was providing.

The Mark pointed out subtle ways that the Traveller’s power helped him when he cast summoning spells, and he thought about how Kelda’s sanctum moved so quickly that it appeared to be in four locations at once…

…and yet none of them at once.

‘Kelda’s sanctum was moving so fast that it could be in multiple places at once,’ he thought. ‘It existed in four locations and yet it wasn’t truly in any one of them. That’s not just teleportation. That’s more like mastery of space and distance.’

Alex focused on that thought, the Mark was guiding him; pointing out even the most subtle pulse of energy each time he’d channelled Hannah’s power.

Concentrating on when he’d connected that power to Kelda’s sanctum, something that was in multiple places at once.

‘What does a mastery of space mean?’ he thought, the power effortlessly flowing through him. ‘It means I can be anywhere, and go to any place. Barriers mean nothing. I can escape any prison and beat any trap by willing myself to be somewhere else. I can be nowhere in space. I can be everywhere in space. But I don’t have to be everywhere.’

Alex focused on the things he had to do and where he was needed most.

Merzhin needed him to be by his side to help and protect him from Aenflynn.

He was needed in Thameland, to help Hannah fight the tides of monsters that were destroying their home.

He was needed in the Ravener’s cavern, there with his friends, battling the construct, keeping it tied up.

And…he also needed to be inside the Ravener, shutting it down, permanently. Four places,’ he thought. ‘Just like Kelda’s sanctum: four places at once. I bet I can do that. I have todo it.’

Hannah’s power was like a song singing in his soul.

And it was time for that song to reach a crescendo.

Concentrating with every stream of consciousness, Alex teleported across the room.

Then teleported again, this time back to the Ravener’s cavern.

Battle raged through the gloomy cave, Alex’s companions were struggling against the unyielding construct and its hordes of monsters. Hart and Asmaldestre were attacking the floating orb, while their other companions were taking on its seemingly endless armies.

Suddenly, he felt its attention shift to him.

“What are…?” it started.

He was gone before it could say another word.

His being hurtled through space, passing between planes, bypassing the barrier between the material world and the fae wild as easily as crossing a room.

He manifested above the city of Ussex.

Below, the capital burned as the Thameish army and Alex’s mercenaries—all blazing with divine blessings—fought a horde of Ravener-spawn.

Far away, Alex could feel Hannah teleporting from place to place across Thameland. Through their connection, images of her flashed through his mind; she was using her power to hurl hordes of Ravener-spawn across the stars, sending them burning up in the light of a distant sun.

But Carey was right.

Hannah was using oceans of divinity to bless and heal any mortal she came across, while destroying spawn.

She needed help.

And he would provide it.

Concentrating, the General teleported back to the throne room in Aenflynn’s castle.

In the heartbeat Alex had been gone, Carey had teleported through the outer divine ward to the Saint’s side and was pressing her hands to his back, helping him, channelling Hannah’s divinity directly into him.

An aura of awesome power was building up around the Saint.

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But Alex couldn’t focus on that now.

The Mark of the General showed him what he could use from teleporting to the Ravener’s cavern, then the capitol of Thameland.

And he learned.

And he thought.

And he adapted.

He cast invisibility magic on himself, then teleported again.

First, to the Ravener’s cavern.

An instant later, to the skies above Ussex.

Then back to Aenflynn’s castle.

Another moment was spent considering the guidance of the Mark of the General. Then, he was gone again.

Teleporting to the Ravener’s cavern.

Then the skies over Ussex.

Then Aenflynn’s castle.

Another pause to consider information from the Mark.

He started again.

Away to the Ravener’s cavern.

Then the skies of Ussex.

Then Aenflynn’s castle.

And again.

Ravener’s cavern.

Skies of Ussex.

Aenflynn’s castle.

Faster.

Ravener’s cavern.

Skies of Ussex.

Aenflynn’s castle.

Ravener’s cavern.

Skies of Ussex.

Aenflynn’s castle.

Ravener’s cavern.

Skies of Ussex.

Aenflynn’s castle.

The sights changed in rapid succession around him, shifting from the dark cavern, to a morning sky, to a divinity-lit chamber. Everything began blending together as he teleported from place to place, moving faster and faster.

Light, sound and colour became indistinct; blending motion, distance and space. The Mark of the General guided him. Hannah’s power sang to him. Kelda’s sanctum served as his example. Then there was the Whetstone tavern, vanishing and appearing across the cosmos.

He reached into his satchel, gripping Kelda’s coin.

He quickly teleported between spaces.

Faster.

His surroundings became an incomprehensible blur of one space bleeding into another. He was teleporting so quickly that—in each passing instant—he was in a different place.

His brain began aching; he was teleporting faster, feeling like his vision was seeing from three sets of eyes, instantly feeding him different information. Three sets of ears. Three senses of smell. Skin feeling the stifling, smoke-filled wind above Ussex, the stone-dust choked air in the Ravener’s cavern, or the coolness of Aenflynn’s castle.

Alex’s mind fought to define the bombardment of sensory information coming at him, but he couldn’t, it was all blending, turning to nonsense in his brain; human eyes weren’t meant to take in multiple places at once, not with clarity…and not like this.

But, there was a solution for it.

Taking control of three individual streams of consciousness, he focused each one on perceiving even the slightest nuance of a particular location.

Abruptly, the blurring stopped.

His mind throbbed from the strain, feeling as if it had nearly fragmented, but the distortion cleared; the blur of light, sound and motion righted itself, and suddenly his awareness was defined: he could see, hear, smell, feel and taste from three sets of senses at once.

He called on the Mark of the General, focusing it on organising the information, on smoothingcommunication between his streams of consciousness. Sensation from three different places filtered through the individual streams, organising themselves separately in his mind.

In a way, it was the same as receiving images from the Mark, and he had always experienced them while being aware of the world around him.

‘Close,’ he thought, ‘I’m so close.’

His teleportation sped up.

Increasing.

When all at once…something dawned on him, he was going about trying to achieve his goal in the wrong way.

‘It’s not about teleporting faster…it’s not about teleportation. I think it’s about the mastery of space,’ he thought. ‘So, instead of teleporting multiple times in a heartbeat, the power should be in a constant flow. And if it’s constant, then…’

The thought was like a key turning in a lock.

Hannah’s power released, flooding through the young archwizard’s soul.

And the General of Thameland achieved what he’d witnessed Kelda’s sanctum do.

Smoky skies over Ussex.

The darkness of the Ravener’s cavern.

The stone in Aenflynn’s castle.

All three places faced him at the same time.

It wasn’t that he’d split himself in three. No. He was one body. One soul. Yet, in three places at once.

He floated above the ground in all three locations, in awe of what he’d done.

‘You did it,’ he thought. ‘You actually did it.’

He took a deep breath, concentrating. ‘Now for the next part.’

A stream of consciousness focused on his left arm.

He raised it.

And—in all three locations—his left arm rose. It was still the same body, after all.

‘But that doesn’t have to be the case,’ he thought. ‘If Kelda’s sanctum could be in four places at once. And if I’m in three places at once. Then…there’s no reason why my arm can’t be in one position in one place and in another position in another. I can raise my left arm in one place, and lower it in another. I have one body, but in three places. One person in three different points in space. Why not one person in three different positions? Try it. Move your left arm. Raise it in Thameland, and lower it in Och Fir Nog.’

Alex concentrated, pushing his thoughts to the limit. One stream of consciousness focused on raising his left arm in Thameland.

Another focused on lowering it in Aenflynn’s castle.

‘One body. Multiple places,’ he thought. ‘One body, multiple positions. Adapt to that. Think about it. Adapt to it. It’s not that hard to do. The hard part is already done. You can do this. You can do it.’

His streams of consciousness were focused on his body.

On raising his left arm in one location.

And lowering it in another.

The sensation…was the strangest one Alex had ever felt.

He could feel his muscles contracting in opposite directions; in one place his shoulder was rising, and in the other, the same shoulder was dropping toward his side.

‘You canbe in more than one place at once,’ he thought. ‘And that can mean more than one position at once. It’s possible. You’re doing it right now. Kelda did something similar with her sanctum; when you were in there, you were in four different places at once. This isn’t that different. Think about all the movements you’ve mastered…how you’ve mastered every muscle in your body. You have multiple streams of consciousness, each controlling your body in a different location. Each one changing your position at will. At the same time.’

He called on the Mark of the General, and as he concentrated, it guided him.

His arm slowly rose in Thameland, even as it lowered in Och Fir Nog.

‘More,’ he thought.

He began floating forward through the sky in Thameland.

In Och Fir Nog, he moved upward.

In the Ravener’s cavern, he floated downward.

Alex was invisible in all three locations—the magic from the spell affected his body in all three places—and he remained quiet. As heartbeats passed, he called on the Mark of the General, it focused on his previous successes, pointing out what he’d done wrong.

He learned quickly, mastering his own body in new ways, within seconds.

With every heartbeat he improved.

His movements grew quicker.

Smoother.

More coordinated.

He was adapting to the sensory input from three different locations at once, and his streams of consciousness were quickly becoming adept at simultaneously moving his body in different ways, in each place.

It was almost as if he’d become three different people…and yet they were all Alex. One body. One soul. In three different places. Taking up three different positions.

‘Three different battles,’ he thought.

Hannah’s power flowed between each place in perfect harmony.

Soon…

‘I’m ready,’ he realised.

In the skies over Ussex, in the castle in Och Fir Nog and in the Ravener’s lair deep below ground, the General of Thameland could be found.

If three people viewed him with true seeing, piercing his invisibility spell, they would find him moving in different ways.

But in each location, his face would be wearing the same expression:

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A mixture of towering determination…and unshakable confidence.

‘Now, there’s still a lot to do,’ he thought.

One pair of eyes took in the Ravener.

‘Places I need to be. People I need to help.’

One pair of ears heard the crackle of fire below him in Ussex. Fires that burned all across Thameland.

‘And there’s something I have to help get rid of.’

Cool wind blew across his skin in Aenflynn’s sanctum as divine power built around Merzhin.

‘Time to turn this around. It's time to finish this.’