7even Towers: Chapter One
#1 of 7even Towers
Chapter One
1984
Looking over the guns being sold at the latest vendor she had found at the gun show she noticed an odd pair of hand guns. Asking if she could pick them up and getting the go ahead she gently picked them up. She began to check the basic mechanisms as well she could without taking them apart or firing. Pulling out her wallet she paid for both and put one in a holster while she checked the model number to find out which ammo types would work.
From behind her she heard a male voice say "If you're looking for a production code, don't bother."
Turning to look she saw a brown bear towering a good 8 or 9 feet over her, lowering the gun she put it in the holster opposite the other. "And how do you know that?"
"Grab the gun in your paw and hold it as if you're going to shoot the ground." He replied without answering her question.
Sighing she figured he wasn't going to answer until she humored him. Grabbing the gun on her right thigh she flipped the safety and pointed it at the ground. Hearing a click she looked at the bottom and saw the gun had a mag in it now, "How the bloody hell?"
"It's the jewels on the handle; they're what you noticed originally, they work with you because you've got a magic circuit, I was sent by the 7even towers because they saw you would get your conduit today. Now if you'll follow me your car is being taken care of."
Flipping the safety on the gun and re-holstering it in one motion she said "My name is Railyn, now tell me yours or I'm not moving."
Turning the bear said "They call me Ursa, the major, now come along cub."
Fuming she saw that her car which she had parked close was already gone. Seeing no other choice she followed Ursa and said "I'm not a cub anymore, I'm 22 already."
"You'll need to add another 2 to even equal our next youngest trainee." He said without stopping.
"24 isn't that much older than 22 you know."
"You added it to the wrong column, and 42 isn't the answer either." He said while opening the door on a big van and beckoning her to sit.
"But that would only leave 222, that isn't possible." She said while sitting where he indicated and keeping her feet and tail in while he closed the door.
From behind her she heard another man say "Trust me, it is, nice to meet you young Javan Leopard, I am sorry for our trainer."
Turning she saw a red arctic wolf sitting in the middle seat of the second row of the van. "You actually realized I'm a leopard, sharp senses." She commented while Ursa got in the driver's seat and began to drive.
"Well you do have a rather odd coloration with a black coat with white spots and red eyes. But you have the lithe form and build of a leopard, and your fur still looks like a Javan's even like that, not to mention your size."
Scowling she said "Fine, I'm small for a leopard, but most Javans are, and 4'4" is a good size in my opinion, it's far easier to keep my balance and I don't have to worry about the recoil of the double pistols I like if I align my spine right."
Speaking up Ursa said "Rustie, no tormenting the new student, and you don't have to worry about any recoil from those double pistols Railyn."
"Are you ever going to stop calling me that?" he complained at Ursa. Turning to Railyn he said "My name is Rustle, and he calls me Rustie because of my coloring, and he spells it like a girl's name because when he found me I had accidentally cast a spell that backfired and turned me into a girl."
Grinning she replied "So somewhere behind that grumpy exterior there actually is some humor, who would have guessed it."
Knowing he was being prodded on Ursa said "Considering that he had managed to turn himself into a girl with at least H cup breasts and a small waist over a well formed butt, quite the image to be certain, 208 years later and I still remember it vividly, I'm not forgetting it any time soon to be certain, here, have a look yourself, even girls tend to find her rather attractive, don't they Rustie!" He said the last word with power that could be felt through the air. She felt her guns shake and reverberate the word in them, they were remembering the power so that they could eventually do it themselves given the proper exchange from their master.
Looking back she saw exactly what Ursa had seen when he had first met Rustle. A girl that almost seemed like a whore but something about her body made Railyn hot just looking at her, she felt the warmth building between her legs until she just barely noticed Ursa shout " Rustie!" with the same power behind it as before except it felt backwards, then Railyn saw Rustie snap back to normal.
Growling he yelled "Would you stop doing that Ursa!"
Shrugging he laughed and said "Not until you manage to stop it at least once, after that I'll stop."
Grabbing one of my guns I looked at it and felt the power of those two shouts of Ursa still reverberating through it. "Why is my gun reacting to those shouts by Ursa?" I asked while pulling out the other and feeling it had the same thing coursing through it.
Raising an eyebrow Rustle said "Well they're your magic focus, but they shouldn't be doing that, not if you're one of Ursa's charges, the Grey mimics can do that but Ursa is in charge one section of the Orange conjurers."
"She isn't just a conjurer, she's a Black learner." Ursa said while turning off the highway.
"That isn't possible, they're extinct, all the bloodlines were killed off!" Rustle said while pulling out a glove and putting it on, continuing he explained "I'm going to cast the only White divination spell I know, it won't do anything to you but it will tell me what kind of magic you use. EDOCEO VERA." While raising his hand at her it began to glow white.
Looking down over her arms she noticed that even her white spots appeared black, there was a black aura over her entire body. "Okay, can you turn it off now?" Railyn asked while feeling the energy vibrating through her guns again.
With a shocked look on his face Rustle said "Yeah, Cease, but how could you see that? Better yet, how the hell are you a Black learner?"
"She is the granddaughter of the headmaster. Beyond each other they have no other relations alive or dead who could use magic." Ursa said while parking the van and getting out.
Opening his own door and getting out Rustle said "So the Grey and White headmaster who mysteriously appeared 5 millennia ago has a Black granddaughter."
Opening Railyn's door Ursa beckoned her to follow him.
Getting out she said "So when are you going to explain, and I don't have a grandpa, I was left at an orphanage until it was noticed by a military man, who'd always wanted someone to train in all that he knew about weapons, that I had an affinity to make things go where I wanted when I stole a pair of knives from the kitchen and put on into a tree and then put the second into the handle of the first."
Frowning Rustle said "You still have grandparents, you weren't raised with them around but you still have them."
Turning around to look at Rustle with complete resolve on her face Railyn said "If they wanted anything to do with me then they should have stopped me from going to that hell hole. Before I was 10 I had my tail broken 3 times, my legs broken one time each, my right ear still has a piece missing," she said while turning her ear so that he could see the hole in the middle, "I was always different, the classes that the orphanage taught were easy for me, I didn't even have to think sometimes, and I was hated for that, I was lucky, because on the day that Da adopted me he also protected me, the other kids had finally had enough, they were going to tie me up, and since I was small it would have been easy, they were going to throw me over the fence behind the orphanage. I would have died for being able to learn anything after just seeing it once, there are times I don't even have to see it. So if you think I want anything to do with this grandfather of mine then you're sorely mistaken."
Behind her a young looking black panther said "Rai, I'm fairly certain that isn't true, I would have saved you sooner but I couldn't, and I'm sorry for that."
Turning Railyn said "Da?"
Putting a finger on his chin he said "I think you'll need to add a gran before that, and I really am sorry I couldn't get you out sooner, but I had to find you first."
"Find me?" she asked with a confused look on her face before she said "They said you appeared 5 millennia ago, how could I be your granddaughter?"
"When you were born I was there to see if you had inherited magic. I was satisfied you did so I was going to be a part of your life, the moment I took my eyes off you, that was when it happened, you used your magic and teleported away, I tried to copy your ability and reverse it but as soon as I felt It I knew you hadn't just moved yourself through space, but through time as well, I didn't have the power to reverse that, still don't to be honest."
Interrupting Rustle said "That isn't possible; no one can move through time and live, not on their own, with nothing protecting them."
Turning to him the Headmaster said "But she didn't know that, so she was able to do it. She didn't even mean to, but she did it."
Interrupting Ursa said "Sir, we should move on so that we can put the seal on."
Nodding he said "You're right, Rustle, Rai, follow along please, and for the last time I hope, Ursa, my name is Beatus."
Following along we were lead to a room with a circle carved intricately into the floor. Striding across the circle Beatus said to a weasel "Do you have all of the necessary ingredients this time?"
Nodding she grabbed at the cape around her and pockets appeared wherever she put her paws, digging through them all and pulling something or other out, wands and eyes and a couple different soda cans, some empty some open, and a fork and a rusty spork and somehow a tire and even a series of varying bones, the list goes on and a pile starts growing around her feet.
Deciding to help Rustle and Railyn start to walk over the circle on the ground and Ursa reaches to stop them. Upon setting foot inside Rustle flies backwards into Ursa, knocking them both on the ground. Turning to look Rai said "Why did that happen to him and not me?"
Not looking up from distributing the odd motley of items around the circle Beatus said "Because this ceremony is for you, prepare yourself, it's almost ready."
"Prepare myself for Wha-AHHHH, Damnit Da this hurts!" she said while feeling more pain than she thought could ever be possible.
Looking over at Beatus the weasel asked "What did you do to her that she can talk with her nerve endings on fire?"
Managing to move her head Railyn looked over and said "He shot me, with a vest on, a few hundred times." As another wave of pain shot through her nerves Railyn yelled "Now stop the fucking pain!"
Looking over at Beatus Ursa said "You are insane. You turned your adopted daughter who is genetically your granddaughter into a pain absorber."
Beatus looked over at Ursa and said "You think it didn't hurt every time, but I know what's coming, I know that the 8th tower wants to make sure she dies, they knew the moment she was born, and they told me that as soon as they found her they would kill her. Thankfully she never used magic again, but she found her conduit, her magic has been leaking out from those guns ever since she picked them up."
From the door behind Beatus a black lion walked in and said "Are ya doing our job for us Headmaster of the 7even towers. It would seem so because her heart be failing, in 8 seconds the last black learner in existence for this and the rest of time, so long as she dies that be true."
Without turning Beatus said "Hello Headmaster of the 8th tower, master of the Caelestis tower, and yes, because you would have taken her soul, in this tower souls can't be removed from their body except to take a jaunt on the astral." He finally turned when Railyn's body fell to the floor with her heart completely stopped.
"I would check her myself but I can see from the carving that only blood relatives to you can enter. Howevar I can hear that her heart has stopped. Onlay Caelestis users may bring the dead back." He said before turning around and disappearing through the doorway.
" Clado." Beatus said before turning back around and putting his hand on the circle and saying "Block destruction"
Rushing forward the weasel laid her hands on Railyn and started chanting.
Walking over Ursa said "You are evil, you killed her and are having Bailey bring her back."
"I told you, she had to die, and she did die. If Rai never trusts me again I'm fine with that, because she's still alive, I taught her to withstand the pain because this way she was awake when I explained what was going on. She saw when Enivid came in, she saw that he doesn't even need to speak to use his spells, that's what she's up against, that's who will stop at nothing to make sure she's dead. Because she's dead that means the Seal worked, her magic won't leak its energy beyond an area the size of this circle," saying that Beatus said "Home" and disappeared.
"I'm going to kill him!" was the first thing that Railyn said after Bailey finished.
Raising an eyebrow Rustle said "Well you're lively for someone who was just dead."
"It isn't the first time he's killed me." She said blandly before pulling her guns out of their holsters.
"Wait, what?" was Rustle's immediate response.
Moving the elbow glove on her right arm they saw several spots that were a pale tan with no fur. Moving her shirt up to just below her breasts they saw several more spots like that there. "He shot me, I bled out, and I was declared dead, twice, if you're wondering, yes, he hit my womb, I'm barely fertile but I'll probably never carry a litter to term. Now, how do I use this energy my guns absorbed, he teleported or something, so how do I follow him."
Turning to look at her Ursa said "None of us know how you use your magic; you'll have to discover that on your own."
Shrugging she put the gun in her left hand against her shoulder and shot. Immediately changes rippled through her body. Getting a little shorter she felt her bust grow and her waist getting smaller with her hips expanding. She looked at Rustle and wanted to screw him so badly. Before she lost complete control she pulled control again and went back to normal. "Ok, that sucked."
Laughing Rustle said "You're telling me, now do you see why I hate it when Ursa does that, he isn't affected by the damn side effects most others have, he's done that in the middle of a classroom before for revenge, ended in a rather messy way."
"Considering the way I felt both times that's probably an understatement. Um, did any magic happen between then and Da leaving?"
Ursa thinks on it and says "Two things, the barrier and the destruction of the circle, you can't copy Bailey's magic, it's a different class."
"Um, what about the seal thing?"
Shaking his head Ursa said "Ritual, that isn't replicable."
Popping two shells out of the gun she pointed it at herself again and pulled the trigger. She watched as the others disappeared from sight and she found herself in a different room.
From behind her she heard Beatus say "You're figuring out how to copy magic rather quickly."
Pulling the gun away from her shoulder Railyn looked at it and said "So weird not to have a bullet hole there, well I guess this means you're still the only one to have ever shot me and hurt me."
Sighing he said "There's a lot of things I did that I'm sorry about, and you'll proba..."
Pulling out her other gun she flipped the safety and shot him with the Rustie spell. Watching she saw him shrink to her height and grow breasts and hips. Watching she saw him close his eyes and the transformation stopped. "Ok," putting his hand on his throat he said "Alright, new voice and vocal cords, that's weird, and I guess I deserve this in a way."
"How did you do that?" Railyn asked.
"I can stop magic that happens near me, I can't cast spells without chanting like Enivid can, but I can stop and in a lot of cases reverse the magic. I can't reverse your magic, I can flip it, but flipping someone's magic can have untold side effects."
"Why can't I copy Bailey's magic?"
"She uses the magic of Caelestis, you may someday learn of it, but first you have to learn to cast spells instead of just copy them, can you please shoot me again?"
Unloading the next shell she watched as he turned back to normal.
2010
Railyn
"Ok class, that's all for today." Ursa said from the podium.
Getting up I muttered "Tele" and hopped across the classroom. Walking up the last few steps I said "Hey Ursa, good class, can you finish the Evocation training for me today?"
Looking over he said "You learned well from the other teachers, you can use every other type of magic, you can even use White magic without chanting, but my Red magic is hard to learn, it is the flames of magic, it is the bite that even the White-Green of necromancy can't burn alongside it to the same degree."
Snapping my fingers I held a silver flame in my hand and said "How does it compare to Caelestis magic?"
As he opened his hand I heard him whisper and his fire consumed the one in my hand.
Smiling I said "And that's why I need your help, I need you to train me, but first, Tele," I said while jumping across the room and pulling out my right pistol. He raised his hand towards me with the flame still in it, the flame immediately moved towards me and I fired. Both collided in the air and canceled each other in a small burst of flames.
Gruffly he said "Good, you've gotten better at that to say the least."
"It's been 26 years, I've learned how to tell them which spells to load at what time, speaking of." She said before shooting him with the same gun and pointing the other behind her and shooting. Watching she saw him teleport straight into the path of her other bullet and be struck by her copy of his own fireball. She saw him burn to nothing and she knew that it was an illusion. "So when did you learn to create a personal anti-magic field?" she asked where her senses told her there was a zone of no magic field.
As he reappeared he said "I'm not sure it's possible to beat you on a basic level anymore, someone skilled enough possibly could but you have your guns which can posses 20 normal spells, you can roll out spells until you're completely exhausted and faint, a grueling ability, and you can sense magic fields. I do feel sorry for anyone who tries to figure out what type of spell caster you are, have you seen your field recently?"
Muttering "Edoceo Vera" under my breath I saw what he meant, my magic was strong enough that it had expanded the field the Seal covered, my magic field was pitch black and had a 40 foot radius, it was probably blocking the hall to anyone else who could see magic fields, there weren't many in the school, but there were some so I quickly turned it back of by ejecting the bullet from one gun and loading it in the other and shooting myself.
Raising his eyebrow Ursa walked up next to me and said "You're using your left gun?"
Nodding I said "Yeah, if I eject a bullet from one gun and load it in the other the magic field reverses, I've learned to cast the weapon spell silently and motionlessly, so all I have to do is eject the bullet and catch it and have the bullet back in the other gun within 2 seconds."
Shaking his head Ursa said "Let's go, don't just use your tele spell this time, it's effective for quick jumps but it gives me a headache when you use it to get to the training rooms."
Groaning I said "Come on, you know the regular teleport spell is a hassle even for me, it's only 87 quick jumps."
Crossing his arms Ursa said "Either you use that or we walk."
Sighing I muttered under my breath and summoned my cape of supplies and used spells to speed up the process, after another ten minutes I had finished preparing the spell symbols and the circle. Standing up I said "I hate this spell, I need to find a way to make this easier, if I can, hmm." Thinking on it I muttered the key word and we were in the training room Ursa and I had been using, it even has the scorch marks to prove it.
Snapping his fingers in front of my face Ursa said "Whatever you're planning Railyn, make sure and focus on training, if you mess up the Dragon Breath, well, it really won't be pretty with the amount of magic you're able to put into it."
Looking over at him I asked "Wait, there is actually a spell that is more powerful based on All of my magic?"
Nodding he said "With this spell you can use all of your magic, it isn't recommended, but you using all of your magic may just end any fight, unless you try to fight some of the older magic users of course, don't think that pure force will beat anyone, especially not either of the headmasters, your magic will be much more potent if you are ever allowed to break that seal."
"But you won't be able to do that until the headmaster of the Caeletis is no longer so, Bailey is the next in line, that's why she's here, he would kill her if he could, he ignored her existence during the ceremony because after you die no one can defeat him. He's powerful on his own due to his age, but the headmasters get stronger because of their students, your grandfather is stronger in that right because he trains his students, he teaches the White magic for a few years and then teaches the Grey magic for a few years, he grew quite a bit over the past 26 years thanks to you."
Narrowing my eyes and shaking my head I said "No, I haven't helped him, he's helped me."
"You're teaching his advanced combat class, you increased the number of spell books in the library, which need to have 200 spells each, by 2, and you've shown him you love him."
Sighing I said "Enough, let's begin this, it's your last lesson for me." Grabbing my guns which I affectionately called Vash and Revy, after two characters that I loved in manga that had come out recently, both of them used pistols for inhumanly accurate effects and abilities. "Vash, Revy, lets finish this lesson with a bang." I whispered while holding them up to my shoulders. They both changed to the forms I liked better for each of them, Vash appeared as a .45 caliber revolver and Revy turned into a modified Baretta 92FS. There normally wasn't any kick from my lovely pair of guns but I added some for this because when there was none I tended to compensate still and continually moved my guns down.
Raising an eyebrow Ursa said "So you're taking today completely seriously, good." And then he muttered a word and his true conduit appeared. A pair of boxing gloves and his secondary conduit also appeared, a suit of 'Red Dragon Skin' armor over him, he called it his red dragon skin since it made him completely immune to fire. His boxing gloves were more like winter gloves since they appeared like normal but like my guns they were magic, they allowed him the freedom of complete movement within to cast any spell he deemed necessary to finish the job.
Jumping back from where I was I felt the rush of air over my shoulder as Ursa blew forward like a fire storm through a forest. Tossing Revy I shot out with a normal bullet from Vash and hit the trigger on Revy. Revy then shot out the frost shot I had loaded earlier in preparation. Whispering "tele" I jumped behind him and grabbed Revy.
"That almost worked, except that I put a frost a ward up since my armor makes me vulnerable to cold."
Raising Vash I said "But that only lasts against one of my frost spells," and pulled the trigger while whispering "Deeps". Slowing down he seemed to stop as time materialized as arms around him and wrapped him tightly in their grip. Shouting "Acidica" and shooting my guns immediately after I felt the energy copy itself into them. Watching I saw my Acidica spell eat through my reverse speed and start eating his Red Dragon Skin. A moment later his armor disappaited to protect itself.
As Acidica finished eating through Deeps Ursa said "Quite the finish, you not only canceled my speed, you made it increase your slow's effectiveness, and how did you manage that?"
"I used my Deeps spell, not a slow spell."
Waving his hands Ursa said "Wait, since when can you cast that with a whisper?"
Shrugging I said "Maybe a week ago, I also managed to create a time bubble, I've spent about a year in there so far, so really it's been 27 years since I came here for me, I figure that I can only spend about a week in there at a time, once a week, every week, I spend a week in there."
Sighing he said "No wonder you've been advancing even faster lately. Sit down, I explain the basics of Dragon's Breath." After that we spent the next hour and a half covering the basics of the Dragon's Breath spell, I also showed him how to use my Acidica spell, it worked just like his acid bolt but it drew on more power.
Walking into Da's study I said "I've learned all the spells the instructors are willing to teach me."
Nodding he said "You've got a request before you have your magic keyed to the Instructor's library."
Grinning I said "Of course, don't I always when I come here." It wasn't a question and he knew it as I pulled an actual sheet of paper out of my pocket.
Looking it over he said "You love teleport spells don't you, this is your third improvement on teleport spells." Grabbing a pen he muttered a spell and it became a magic tattoo gun. He had helped me the last time I wanted to ignore the ritual requirements for a spell. Pulling my shirt and bra off I left a magic field over the front of me and let Da take his time putting my new tattoo on my back. Time passed slowly with him sticking a needle in my back hundreds of times. Feeling the heat I knew he had finally finished the design. My fur changed to a purple over the spell insignia there. Murmuring I filled in the coordinates spot and then moved Da and I to the entrance to the of the Instructor's library.
With an impressed tone in his voice he said "Ok, that one is worth it, you compacted the entire teleport without disruption spell into one tattoo."
Grinning I said "I did more than that, I compacted the mass teleport and the teleport without disruption into one tattoo. Now wasn't there something that you needed to do, because I can't move at all."
Clapping his hands together Da said in a tone echoing with power " Suscipio Eximo Commoneo" he was visibly drained afterwards but the enormous doors in front of me finally opened wide and the second biggest library of spells in the world.