Chapter 17

Dusty, Suzan, Daniel, and Rachel all suddenly appeared on the pad next to Lori's home.

The pad was large enough to accommodate five riders on horseback, but it was the four of them standing next to Dusty and Suzan's horses.

Waiting while Dusty and Suzan took their horses to the stable, the four of them returned to the front of the door and knocked.

"Lori seemed pretty excited when I called her, I wonder why," said Suzan as they waited

"Bet she's discovered something new again. She works like a fiend to discover something and then she is happy for days until she starts on her next discovery. It's hard to believe sometimes she is the same dower girl who we were able to just barely tolerate and even then it was sometimes," said Rachel smiling.

Before either of the men could respond the door quickly swung open and Lori was there smiling.

"Finally! It's been a very eventful month and you guys need to follow me out back," said Lori as she turned and started quickly through the house without looking back to see if they were following her.

Looking at each other they all quietly followed her through the house out back.

Out back they found all the children sitting around and talking to each other in various ways.

DJ was sitting with Amber and she was gesturing as she said something. DJ appeared to be listening intently. Marilyn, Duncan, Blaine, and Jordan were sitting at a table. They seemed to be deep in conversation.

What surprised the newcomers was that Logan was sitting next to Jordan and seemed to be listening. Dusty was sure that his son was trying to learn what interested his girlfriend as he listened, but asked a few questions of her from time to time.

The four also noticed that Mark was sitting out back. He was watching what was going on around him like a hawk. Dusty wondered exactly what was going on that Mark felt he needed to take time away from the family business to stay home.

"Kids, kids, everyone come here for a moment. Your parents are here," said Lori smiling.

Everyone looked up, saw their parents and smiled as they headed for them.

"Hey guys what is going on?" asked Dusty.

"Dusty I need you to try something. Step away from everyone and make a fireball, but hold it in your hand without discharging it," said Lori.

Giving her a questioning look Dusty stepped away from the other three a few feet and did as she asked, it was then that he noticed that Jordan was smiling. It appeared she was going first.

Dusty stood holding the fireball and waited.

"I'm sorry but I can't let you keep that," said Jordan softly with a smile.

Dusty looked startled when the fireball in his hands disappeared.

"Try to create it again," said Lori smiling.

Dusty tried, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't actually create the fireball again.

"What is going on?" asked Dusty looking surprised.

The other three had no idea what was distressing him, but they could see he was surprised by something.

"DJ figured out that Jordan has the ability to deny mages the ability to access their powers. We're still exploring it, but she can actually stop castings and keep you from using magic if she wants too," said Lori smiling.

Dusty looked over at DJ and smiled. It seems he was starting to adjust to everything around him. He was fitting in if he was discovering things like this already.

"DJ how did you figure that out?" asked Dusty.

"Wait you'll see it too," said DJ smiling.

"Next, now that Jordan is done, Dusty, you should be able to use magic again," said Lori smiling.

Everyone could see that she was enjoying this.

Dusty again tried to make a fireball and saw that he could make it easily.

"Ok, that should be a circle one, right? Make sure to keep your arm above your head," said Lori

"I'm ready what's next," said Dusty smiling

"Wouldn't that be more interesting to see if it was say, a sixth circle fireball?" asked Blaine smiling.

Sudden the small fireball that was about six inches across in diameter suddenly expanded into one that was now almost four feet in diameter.

This unexpected turn of events caught Dusty off guard and he almost dropped the fireball now in his hands before he corrected it. Dusty tried to cancel it, but he couldn't until Blaine told him he was now able to.

Dusty was able to then canceled the fireball himself. That was a surprise but he was starting to think he was figuring this out.

Looking at DJ Dusty asked with a single raised eyebrow, "Circuit?"

DJ nodded and said "Circuit"

Suzan realized that it was something that the two of them shared from their world. She went back to watching without asking what they meant by circuit.

"So based on what DJ said I guess Duncan is somewhere in the middle?" asked Dusty.

"Yes, watch this. It won't hurt but it will surprise you," said Lori.

Suddenly Dusty felt all his power leaving him; it was flowing out of him. Soon his power quickly disappeared. Suddenly he felt weak and without the power to even use magic.

Looking at Lori in shock he saw her almost glowing with pride as she looked back at him smiling big.

"So you have this much power? Wow! Well at least I'm closer to your power level than any other mage could possibly be. I thought I had a lot, but you do definitely have way, way more!" said Lori smiling.

Dusty realized that by that statement that Duncan must have transferred his power into Lori. After a few seconds he felt it flowing back into himself. Soon he felt normal again.

Looking at DJ Dusty asked "Balancer?"

"Balancer" echoed DJ

"So Jordan is positive and then Blaine is of course negative," said Dusty.

"Yep, that's about it," said DJ smiling.

"How did you figure that out?" asked Dusty

"It was based on how every time Blaine hung around us he seemed to get better at magic. But at the same time I also noticed that "Duncan" seemed to get better if his Mom, Jordan, or Blaine was around but he got worse when they weren't," said DJ.

"Ahh, so you realized that Blaine was negative and that Duncan was borrowing from other mages to balance himself out. So by process of elimination Jordan must be the positive end of the circuit, nice," said Dusty

DJ just smiled at him.

"Oh, we we're not quite done with the surprises. Logan your next," said Lori smiling.

Dusty and Suzan looked at each other confused. What could Logan possibly offer to show them, they wondered.

"Catch Dad," said Logan as he made a first circle fireball and threw it at Dusty.

Even though it caught him off guard Dusty quickly cancelled it out as it flew at him in the air. Suzan, Daniel, and Rachel stared at him with open mouths.

"Logan, that means..." said Suzan trailing off as she looked at her son.

Logan nodded as he smiled big.

Suzan crossed the few feet and grabbed her son and squeezed him tight in a bear hug. She didn't want to say it, but she was very happy that Logan was also a Battlemage like DJ and Dusty.

Though she would never come right out and say it, Suzan wanted her son to also be just as special as Lindsey's son DJ was. She was very happy to know he was also a Battlemage like his father.

"Mom you're embarrassing me," said Logan softly as he waited for his mother to let him go.

Suzan released him, but held him by his shoulders as she looked at him and then smiled at him again and kissed his head. Dusty was stunned. Like Duncan, because Logan had never shown an interest or demonstrated any power for it, they never tested him.

"How was that possible? Logan didn't have access to magic before he left to come here," said Dusty looking away from his son to now focus on Lori.

"It was Duncan again. Apparently he saw that Logan's magic was, well, well tangled as he calls it, and so he untangled it for him," said Lori smiling.

"Doesn't that mean he can do that to others?" asked Rachel wondering as she looked at the kids.

She was curious if he could now actually create mages. They were normally rare, but this would be big if it got out.

"We've not really explored it beyond what he did to Logan. We didn't want to take the chance since we don't fully understand what he can completely do just yet. But he may be able to do it with those who have a high chance at magic, but we'll need a lot to work with it," said Lori smiling.

"They all have secondary abilities as well as main ones. Jordan's main ability I was told is to make any spell she needs no matter if it exists or not, right on the spot without much research. If she needs it she makes it.

"Blaine's main power is the ability to understand any spell on the spot no matter who made it. He doesn't need to be taught the spell. Duncan's ability, it seems, is untangling those who have magical blockages," said DJ.

"Wow, you've been busy haven't you DJ. Well what we need to do now is keep this all under wraps. No one should know anything about what the kids can do until we thoroughly understand their powers," said Dusty.

Lori noticed that Suzan, Rachel, and Daniel seemed to all nod along with him as he said this. As soon as she finished showing off the kids they would need to tell everyone else what happened on their little trip.

"DJ your up last," said Lori smiling.

DJ walked up to the small group and smiled.

"Ok Dad, try to hit me with a fire ball," said DJ smiling

Trusting him, Dusty made a low level fireball and lobbed it at DJ.

DJ didn't even respond but the spell harmlessly disappeared. Dusty threw a few more at him and they all disappeared without DJ having to do anything.

"Ok now, how did you do that?" asked Dusty smiling.

"It's something he calls an A.I. It looks very interesting. I can't wait to get working with it," said Lori smiling.

"A.I.? You mean you created an Artificial Intelligence to work with you?" asked Dusty smiling in surprise as he raised an eyebrow and looked at DJ.

"Right now it's pretty basic, almost a "hello world" type of coding that checks to see if something harmful is coming at me and it tries to cancel it out. You can't hear it, but it tells me what it's doing as it analyzes spells to cancel it. My intention is to eventually have it completely and fully interactive.

"But my problem right now is that my experience is limited in what is harmful and what's not, not to mention that I don't know all that many spells to work with. But as I learn more and work with it, it definitely has promise," said DJ smiling.

"Yes it does, I can't wait to get started. Once I get the basic list down, between the two of us we should have something the kids can start out with as a filter to protect them as long as they have the power to block with it," said Lori smiling.

"How did you come up with this?" asked Dusty.

"Your basic interface uses C++ as a coding base, but MS has come up with a few other coding styles that are similar enough that I could use yours to start off making the basics of an A.I. Like I said it's not a true one yet, but it uses your programming base to do more than show us how the spell works or cut down on casting times.

"After Mrs. Miller, uhm Lori, showed us the interface then I thought it was time to start progressing it a little further. I recognized what was used to write the interface and was able to work with it a few nights to understand how you put it together. From there I was able to add in some of my own programming to work with.

"Eventually it will become a true A.I. with time. But for now what I'm after is eventually having something that takes over either routine functions or complicated ones as it offers suggestions. Something like magical analysis to know what a spells is that you may be looking at or even offer suggestions or warnings for others.

"Also in time I would like for it to have its own personality. I have to say that after learning the basics of the words and structures, when using magic, I understand why you created the spell interface," said DJ smiling.

Dusty smiled back as well. Both of his sons were doing things unexpected of them and looked to be making changes in the world on their own. As he watched Lori she was beside herself as he spoke.

Knowing Lori as he did, he was sure that she managed to get out of DJ more than what he just told everyone. And since he knew what DJ was getting at, he was sure that Lori already had a boat load of ideas to work with. She would have already dreamed up new ideas for his basic A.I.

"Ok, now that you've seen what your kids have been up to, how was your trip?" asked Lori smiling with excitement.

She could almost see the looks of mixed irritation and disappointment on Dusty, Suzan, Daniel, and Rachel's face as soon as the words left her mouth.

"We better sit down before we talk about it. Mark do you have any of Dusty's good bottled wine?" asked Daniel.

"By the looks of your faces it appears his whiskey or Scotch might be a better choice," said Mark as he left to go get it.

While he trusted his kids, he still kept the liquor in a personalized, magically locked, and sealed liquor cabinet that only he or Lori could open. Soon he was back with a tray with six glasses and two bottles. While DJ and Amber might be old enough to handle the stronger stuff he didn't want to cause problems with the younger kids by giving them some.

Soon the parents were seated around the outside picnic table and the kids were close by on the ground, as there weren't enough chairs for everyone.

"Ok, let's hear about it," said Mark once everyone was seated.

Everyone told part of their story with Rachel going first. She outlined how she was surprised when Galvin took out the two men she was with and then broke her ribs and knocked her out. And then later when she was hung from the ceiling as Galvin tried to get her to hurt herself as he watched.

She was very irritated and frustrated with her lack of ability to do anything to stop him.

Daniel went after his wife and then commented on waiting for Dusty and Suzan and then three of them going after Galvin. Then he went into his brief fight where he was completely over powered and embarrassed by Galvin.

Mark and Lori looked at each other. Anyone who could over power Daniel like he said wasn't someone who was just any ordinary fighter.

Suzan went next. As she told about her fight it showed she fared better, but once Galvin hit her on the back of the head she said that she was too disorientated to continue fighting. She even gritted her teeth as she recounted that the last thing she heard was Galvin mocking her about her inability to do better against him.

Dusty went last and recounted what happened to him and how he basically chased Galvin off so that he could get away to check on the others.

As he talked about the Dragon magic, and how it changed him, he could tell that everyone was all ears. This was something that only he and Suzan had talked about before.

"So what are your plans now? Are you going after him?" asked Lori watching everyone.

She could understand why they were upset. There was no clear winner and by all accounts it was three defeats and one draw. The man had fought them all one after the other without a break.

"I thought about that, but no. All that will do is to give him a new reason to come after us. Right now he was trying to prove a point, but that was all. If I go after him and make it personal he will make it personal starting with my family. Not to mention we now have to wait and see how everything shakes out now with Charles since he was also attacked," said Dusty as he looked around at them.

Dusty wanted to impress that they needed to understand that if any one of them attacked Galvin then it would basically involve every one of his family and friends

"So what we wait and see if he attacks us all again, and maybe this time he'll actually kill one of us?" asked Lori

"No. What I need to do is something I've been putting off for a while. We're going to be learning Dragon magic as something to give us an edge. I'll need to take you to where the Dragon's council meets and they will teach you all. You will be known as part of my clutch. You'll also meet my young ward. They pushed for this earlier but now I wished I hadn't put it off," said Dusty solemnly.

Dusty watched as Lori and her two kids got excited. Marilyn also looked excited about it.

"But there is a problem. It will take at the very least about six months, maybe a bit more, to learn their magic. The Dragon's will teach you around the clock, and you will be literally learning it as your sleep. You will also come to learn the language of the Dragons. Oh and one more thing, you won't be able to come back home for any reason until you complete your training," said Dusty as he waited for the impact to sink in.

Everyone looked around as they realized that the magical members of their group would be gone on the outside for at least half a season.

"We can't even come home to visit?" asked Marilyn, latching onto Jason's arm.

"No you'll have to stay. It is extremely intensive training and will take all your time. What needs to happen for everyone's protection is that Marilyn, Jordan, Blaine, Lori, and Amber will first go learn Dragon magic. I'll take you and introduce you then come back for you in six month's time," said Dusty.

"Why only us?" asked Jordan alarmed, as she then reached out to grab Logan's arm in a death grip.

To everyone there it was obvious that she didn't want to be separated from Logan.

"Logan, DJ, and Duncan aren't far enough along in their training that they could learn what they need from the Dragons. They still need to master the basics before they start. Once they complete the fourth circle they will need to learn Dragon magic as well. Everyone else can't use magic so they can't go.

"But if I know the boys, with the motivation they will have since their ladies are will be gone, I bet by this time next year they will do their best to have reached the fourth circle," said Dusty.

As DJ looked at Amber she sadly laid her head on his shoulder. She had managed to finally get him to accept her as his girlfriend, and now she had to leave him. She barely had any time with him alone. Right at that moment, some of her wilder fantasies suddenly floated through her mind about DJ before she could stop them.

DJ for his part was wondering about what he needed to learn to create an automatic type of "return home" style spell. If his father's group had had something like that when they faced this Galvin character, then DJ was sure that they could have gotten themselves out of the fight without having to all be lured into a fighting with that man. DJ also reasoned that it needed to be usable by even those without magic.

"Well that's fine for the magic users, but what about those of us who "don't" use magic?" asked Daniel looking at Dusty.

"We're going to be learning from Dusty and DJ how to do that style of full contact fighting they used earlier," said Suzan quietly.

"What?! You said we could never fight like that again," said Dusty in shock.

"That was before I was hung from a ceiling like meat by that ego manic as I waited to be saved. What I've mastered up to this point wasn't good enough to save me from him," said Suzan as she fixed him with a stare.

Dusty quietly focused his attention on his wife as she looked back.

He could tell she was floating between still being fearful of what had happened to her and the anger from being taken out like she was.

Suzan wasn't mad at Dusty, but she was upset with herself for having to go back on what she demanded earlier. They needed whatever edge they could get against Galvin.

"Dusty you said yourself you were rusty with that style of fighting. DJ wasn't rusty and you managed to just barely beat him. Imagine if you knew everything you needed to do. What you could have done, if you weren't rusty? Imagine if we all could do it as well and we could incorporate it into our fighting styles," said Suzan.

"I'm game. I need to really be better next time," said Daniel as he interrupted the two of them.

Daniel wanted anything as an edge to let him fair better in a rematch. So this was something he wanted to learn.

"I am as well," said Rachel equally as quick.

"I once spent a summer with a Jujitsu user. I remember everything I was shown and I'm going to show everyone how to use that as well. We need something else as a surprise on our side that he also won't be expecting," said DJ

Mark really wanted to do it, but between his obligations to his family as well as the fact he wasn't at the same level of physical shape they were brought about the realization he would have to rely on them to protect him in case of a problem.

"Ok, looks like everyone is going to have something to be working on. Lori once you guys are finished you'll have to start working on Combat magic with everyone while I focus on melee fighting. We'll have to cross train everyone where it makes sense, but we need to be better prepared. Like I said earlier, for now we're also going to keep your kids other abilities under wraps from the world as our aces in the hole," said Dusty.

Lori nodded agreement as the ramifications of everything that Dusty was saying soaked in. Even if she had no idea what an "Aces in the hole" was.

She had no idea when this conversation started she would be both learning Dragon magic and meeting Dragons! She was just barely able to contain her glee at learning even more impressive magic. This was such a rarity that the only human to learn was Dusty. Now she would be included in this select group.

The kids looked around at each other and realized they would be separated from each other for over six months.

The girl instantly started worrying about the boys and what strange girls would come around once they were out of the picture. The boys were worrying about the girls being alone with Dragons while they weren't there to protect them.

Only Blaine was happy because that meant he would be alone with Amber for half a season or more. He was curious where that time might take them, since Amber was still pretty inexperienced and would be away from DJ during this time.

Making plans to get started in a few days, Dusty was deciding on which day to take the first group to the Dragon cave. DJ meanwhile was asked to get everyone started on a crash Muay Thai camp before Dusty came back.

As they made their plans, the impromptu party broke up and Dusty transported everyone home so they could start to make plans of their own.

Kat kissed Wolfgang long and hard like a long lost lover, before she then headed back to her own home for a bit. But even as she left she knew that she would be back soon.

They already had a habit of never staying away more than a few weeks at a time from each other before his assassination attempt came about.

Things had changed within their bodies when Kat healed him. They now needed time to find out how to live with the changes and how it altered their relationship.

Some of these new changes came about because Kat was testing out magic after she came too. She was able to still do magic, and while it still worked as expected, Kat could feel that the levels of her power were dropping steadily with each spell cast.

Fearful that she would eventually run out of power before she could get it from another source, she worried about where to get it. But she didn't want to sleep with other men on Wolfgang and take a chance at losing him. That was how she lost Elliot.

Kat was trying to decide on how to live a life without magic to keep Wolfgang in her life.

While she was making up her mind she was surprised that she could still feel magical levels inside herself. Over the course of a few days she could also feel that the power was slowly coming back even though she had used some of it.

That had never happened to her before. But eventually she convinced herself to take the chance and one night the she and Wolfgang consummated their relationship.

Wolfgang, having been joined to Kat's mind, fully understood her fears about the source of her power. He eventually came to her and told her he wanted to be with her as her lover. Wolfgang was willing to take that chance with her to set her mind at ease.

He knew that if this went wrong it meant his death, but he was willing to chance it because of how upset she looked when it was brought up.

That first night they were together was both scary and an eye opener for the two of them.

With Wolfgang on top and Kat, tentative and fearful, tried to slowly start the process to siphon off some of his magic. Whatever little bit she could get from Wolfgang without causing him harm would be what she would learn to live with until they did it again. Her plan was to take as much as he could spare without causing him distress.

But as soon as she started the process, the transfer process again flipped on at full power, and Kat again lost complete control over it.

As it started Kat immediately seized up. She felt as if she was floating outside her body. It was one of the few times in her life that her orgasm was started to grow so intense that she almost couldn't take it.

She could only lay there and feel every inch of him as he pushed inside of her. Kat was unable to do anything but take each and every thrust from Wolfgang as he made them. Each time he thrusted into her it felt so incredible that she was sure she would soon black out from the intensity, before he slowly withdrew to start the process all over again.

With the very few coherent thoughts she was capable of, she felt bad that she only lay there as he labored above her. She wanted to join him in the love making, but that thought was soon pushed out of her mind and replaced with nothing but the white haze of her orgasm. The pleasure overtook all of her thought processes.

Wolfgang for his part couldn't believe how their coupling felt either.

To him he felt invigorated when she activated her power, and once Kat started the transfer he could tell, because it felt so fantastic.

Every time he thrust into her it felt like he bottomed out and when he did he felt a jolt of power that surged throughout his entire body. It was like he was holding on to an electric wire as the intensity just grew and grew as it filled him.

Eventually he felt he was getting ready to climax. He felt it boiling up inside of him, and he was sure that when he finished it would be such an intense ejaculation that the blast might very well rocket into her and destroy all the eggs inside her body. The sheer force of his release might very well make her sterile for life.

As he got closer to his finish, Wolfgang looked down and saw how beautiful she look while lightly frowning with her eyes closed. Her face was scrunched up, and her mouth was lax and hanging opened as she breathed harshly. She was riding out the waves of her own climax, which started well before Wolfgang's.

Her arms were also weakly flailing out to her side as she quickly lost control over anything she thought she might do.

Slamming home one final time Wolfgang watched as he pumped into Kat everything that he had held back. Suddenly her hands came up and latched on to his forearms and she wrapped both legs around him, locking them together at the ankles to hold him there.

Wolfgang heard her gasp deeply right before she gave a weak full body shiver. He then saw her eyes roll back in her head, where they started fluttering as she arched slightly into the bed. She then opened her mouth and gave a long low moan that only grew softly louder until she emptied her lungs completely of all oxygen.

Through slitted eyes Wolfgang was sure that he even saw drool escaping down the side of her mouth while she was locked in place like she was. From what he could see her eyes never stopped being rolled back, then he was no longer able to see anything else because he closed his own eyes as the power crested inside of him.

Once finished moaning she continued to lay there panting as her eyes stayed rolled back. Kat's body worked hard on its own at trying to catch its breath while her mind was trapped as it checked out somewhere else on her.

Now finished himself Wolfgang collapsed on the bed next to her, as his arms would no longer support him. He felt exceedingly tired suddenly, and it took a few moments before either of them would have the strength to move again.

He was just able to barely use the last of his strength to completely move so he was no longer lying across her body.

Kat eventually stirred as she started to regain her senses.

That was the most incredible orgasm she had ever had in her life, but it wasn't just that which rocketed her over the top! She could feel that there was more to it!