Zeph Malston: The Aether Mage

Bianca led Zeph and Semara around the store helping anyone they could find. Semara and Bianca would take care of any monsters they encountered while Zeph would guard the rear and the people they picked up. Bernard joined in the rescue effort after he defeated the demon. With his help, the otherworldly beasts were quickly eliminated. The search and rescue proceeded smoothly. After escorting the survivors out of the store and to a safe zone, Bernard flew off to deal with any powerful creatures that the other rescue teams couldn't handle.

Bianca and Semara escorted Zeph back to the mansion. While they drove through the city, Zeph looked at all the damage that the convergence caused. It was his first time witnessing a tragedy and the loss of human life. He was afraid to turn off his emotional limiter because he knew that the images he saw that night would haunt him.

It was a cold reminder that his new life of magic, power, and status was something he lucked into. Those people he saw, who would never open their eyes again, did not have the same blessed life he had now. He felt guilty and doubted whether he even deserved his new life. While not as powerful as his two shifter guards, he still had some ability. 'Could I have done more?' That thought repeated itself in his head over and over along with the images of those who didn't survive.

"We're home,' Bianca said. Her voice pulled Zeph from his thoughts.

The girls looked weary as they walked into the house. He followed them in. Relina and Eli greeted them at the door. Bianca started to tell them what happened. Eli told them about convergence and how dozens of tears opened up across the city. Zeph excused himself and went to the bathroom.

After he entered, Zeph looked into the mirror and turned on the faucet to cover the eventual sounds he would make. He was pretty sure what would happen when he allowed himself to feel again. Taking a deep breath, the boy flipped the mental switch and allowed the flood of repressed emotion to wash over him. It was a good thing he hadn't eaten dinner yet.

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The second day after the attack, Zeph was sitting at the lunch table staring at his plate. Lili and Ivy were with their families across the street. School was suspended and Alex and Keva were at the capitol building. Bernard was with Eli. They were investigating the incident because they were no longer confident in leaving it in the hands of others. Preparations were made, and the proper authorities were informed. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.

No one expected them to create a convergence. Hell, no one knew how they created a convergence. Security footage from that night revealed several people sacrificed themselves but not at the location of all the tears. In some places where people sacrificed themselves, there were no tears anywhere near the area. The ritual caused the convergence and there were people looking into how it works so that they could stop it from happening again. Asperitus was in a state of shock, and the populace was afraid of another attack.

Semara and Bianca were the only ones left in the house with the young lord. Bianca had spoken to Zeph about the incident in the last couple of days. His surrogate older sister felt bad for the boy and tried to help him deal with the emotional fallout after going through such a terrible experience for the first time.

"How are you feeling today?" Bianca asked him.

Zeph stopped tapping his fork on his plate. "Better, I don't see it when I close my eyes anymore. I just wish I could have done something.

"There was nothing you could do. You're not strong enough to take out phantoms and shades. If it was something like a few shadow wolves or gremlins you wouldn't have a problem. We were just unlucky that the worst tear happened where we were," Semara tried to comfort him.

The wolf girl was right. For some unknown reason, the tears that opened near them were the worst in the whole city. All the other tears released low-rank spirits and creatures, but the ones near Zeph and the girls let out class three and four threats. It would take a tier three or tier four mages to contend with them. Luckily, Semara and Bianca met that requirement and more.

Bianca tried to cheer Zeph up as well. "Those swords you made us helped."

He shook his head. "You mean the ones that kept breaking."

"Don't be hard on yourself. Transmutation magic is hard and you don't really know how to forge a weapon or a focus in the first place. It made killing those monsters faster and you were able to repair them easily." Bianca gave Zeph a gentle pat on the shoulder. "We don't expect you to be some badass like your grandpa. You're still starting out. Remember those people you pulled out of the rubble. You helped them. If it wasn't for you, we would have had to split our attention between the monsters and them. Who knows what would have happened then."

"Yeah, and who else your age knows how to use transmutation magic right. That's something to be proud of." Semara was impressed by the cover story Bianca gave her for Zeph's aether manipulation.

Zeph looked at the two shifters and tried to smile convincingly. It didn't work. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up. It's just going to take some time you know. I spent all day moping and there's nothing going on today so I'm just having a little trouble shaking it off."

"I know. How about we go swimming? It's starting to get cold, but with a little magic, the pool is nice and toasty." Semara walked over and elbowed the boy. "C'mon, it'll cheer you up. We all know how much you love staring at me in a bathing suit." She didn't like seeing the kid depressed, so she tried teasing him to change the mood.

Zeph couldn't help but scoff. "Seriously, here I am all vulnerable and you try to seduce me?"

Bianca joined in. "Yeah Semmy, I won't let him fall under your evil clutches," she said and grabbed Zeph as if to guard him against the preying wolf. The atmosphere lightened and Zeph's mood was finally lifting.

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Bernard, Eli, and Relina were at Aether Labs going over the data from the night of the attack. The old mage had been in a bad mood for two days now. They were staring at a map marking all of the tears created by the convergence. Relina was pointing to the store that Zeph was in.

"It appears to be coincidental. From all the data we gathered on the flow of spirit energy, the ritual didn't have the ability to target a specific area for these tears. It was like the conspirator just wanted to create chaos." Relina pointed toward several different tears. "If they wanted to really hurt us, they could have created a tear at these power stations, communication towers, and some of the more integral parts of the city."

Bernard had time to come up with a theory. "They wanted chaos. Remember, there was a tear that demons could come through." He looked out of the room towards a stone statue being studied. "Demons thrive off negative spiritual energy. This incident created plenty of fear and sadness. I can only assume they were initially trying to garner hate, like in all the other provinces."

Eli tapped his foot on the ground while rubbing his chin. "Why though? Why try to sow unrest and turn people against nobles to gather negative emotions? This attack was obviously effective at spreading panic and fear."

"Simple, they can't do this more than once, at least not easily. Think about it. Now we're aware of them. We can prepare and look for signs of another attack. If they are the ones behind all the civil unrest, then they probably needed a lot of negative energy. The anger and outrage have been building up and going on for over a year. This is just a one night spurt of negative energy. It was loud but effective. That makes me think that they were trying to hide their involvement until now," Relina said giving her opinion.

"Well if they switched tactics, I can only think of two reasons for doing so. The first is that they are close to their goal and a slow acc.u.mulation is no longer necessary, or something threatened their plans and they needed to change tactics," Bernard added his thoughts.

"Maybe we should give the little dude another glass of brandy. He might come up with another good idea." Eli chuckled.

"What? You gave a child alcohol?" Relina narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend.

"Don't look at me." The elf pointed at his boss.

Relina switched targets and looked at Bernard. The old mage stared back. "Please, it's not the worst thing I've done." He rubbed his chin. "Though talking to Zeph about this might give us an outside perspective on things. He does tend to come up with interesting ideas.