Elect II—9 Clues, part 1 of 3

November 28, 2016November 14, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily knocked on the door and Priestess Sara let her straight into her cramped little office. Sara had a desk and there were two chairs facing the desk, but that was about all the office could hold. The bookcases made the room feel especially small. They covered every wall apart from the door and the window and were filled with books, mostly religious tomes.

“Not much room,” Emily commented.

“Not much budget,” Sara responded. “The Chaplain’s office does not rank very high on the priority list these days.”

Emily nodded and took one of the chairs that faced the desk. Sara opened the window a crack and spoke. “I know it is December, but the fresh air helps keep things from getting too stuffy. If it gets cold, I can close it.” Emily nodded and held up her hands to indicate she was fine with the fresh air.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come by here earlier in the semester.” Emily started right out with the apology. “I suppose it wasn’t fair for me to get you tangled up in all this and then not spend some time, you know, helping you sort all of this out.” Emily slouched a little and ran a hand through her hair.

This time Sara held up her hands to say the apology was not necessary. “The others and Lisa and Heinrich have helped tremendously. My rational mind still says no way, not possible, not real, occasionally, but my gut knows better these days. I don’t even jump anymore when someone calls me priestess.”

“Priestess.” Emily had to say it just to check. She smiled.

“Your majesty,” Sara returned the smile with a nod of her head.

“See? I didn’t jump either.”

“Yes.” Sara turned serious. “But it is a lot to swallow, having your whole view of life, the universe and everything turned upside down.”

“I don’t think what is going on around here is in any way normal.”

“I wouldn’t think so, but you could help me, maybe. Tell me, what was it like to find out you were one of the elect?”

Emily’s smile fell away. She hardly knew where to start. She rambled a bit about some incidents in middle school and high school, but opened up when she arrived at New Jersey State University for her freshman year. She told everything as she remembered it, and it took well over two hours. Sara was a good listener. By necessity, much of what she told was about Pierce. He was made in a lab by Doctor Zimmer, and said he had a younger brother. When Pierce was activated, he could not help acting as a super soldier or assassin or whatever the government wanted him to be. She told how she had to kill him. She explained how Pierce knew and could have blocked her knife and could have stopped her, but he did not. She began to weep, and Sara came around the desk and held her until the sobbing subsided.

“I really loved him, you know,” Emily said as she sniffed and Sara handed her a tissue. “And he really loved me. He said it was part of the test. His handlers wanted to know what was stronger, his love or his programming.”

“Love won,” Sara said softly and Emily cried a little more as the phone rang.

Sara stepped around the desk to pick up the phone. “Hello?” She mostly listened before she said, “Excuse me.”

Emily saw what looked like a double image for a second. She imagined it was the tears and rubbed her eyes. It sounded like the door, but when she looked up she saw Sara by the window. There was a young man on the ledge outside the window. It looked like Pierce, but Emily knew it was Pierce’s younger brother, and he must have been listening in. She saw him staring at her. She saw him jump from the ledge and Emily jumped to her feet only to find it was not Sara by the window. It was Zoe. By some exercise of godly power Zoe made Emily retake her seat and calm down. Then she spoke.

“Trust me,” Zoe said, and vanished. Then Emily jumped to the window, but Pierce’s brother was gone. Sara, the real Sara took that moment to come back into the room.

“Getting too cold?” Sara asked as she shut the door quietly behind her.

Emily looked and shook her head before she explained what just happened.

Elect II—8 Thanksgiving Break, part 3 of 3

November 23, 2016November 14, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily paced in her room. It was Saturday evening but she dared not go out again. Wednesday and Friday had resulted in attempts on her life, and her friends Molly and Cathy were seriously injured. Clearly someone wanted her out of the way, and she suspected it was someone at the school since the bogyman last summer said as much. The thing was, she had no idea why. All she knew was Zoe asked her to find a door on the university side of what? And she was supposed to solve the goddesses’ immortality mystery. What did she mean the apples are missing from Avalon? Emily read all about King Arthur, but it did not help. As for creatures, now she had met several. And how was the world going mad, blah, blah, blah. It did not make any sense.

Cheeky goddess, Emily thought. But according to Mindy, that was the way the ancient gods and goddesses worked. They set up the impossible tasks and then sat back and watched the humans stumble. One thing was certain, Emily now had a greater appreciation for the Odyssey than ever before.

The smart thing would be to stay home and maybe transfer to a different school. But Emily was not going to do the smart thing. She was going to bank on the fact that the attempts on her life occurred in Columbus and not at the school. It was like whoever wanted her to leave the school was not going to tip their hand by attacking her on school grounds.

Emily’s little brother Tyler came to her door. He seemed worried about her. Emily thought it was a sign that he was growing up, but she would never say that. He would have been insulted if she had.

“Are you pacing for a reason, or just concerned about Molly and Cathy?” he asked.

Thus far Emily said nothing about the attempts on her life. She certainly detailed nothing about the bogyman last summer, or mentioned the attempt at the mall. The news portrayed that as a random act of holiday shopping violence. The incident at the bowling alley was a bit harder to explain except to say some maniac came in shooting up the place and they don’t know why.

“No reason,” Emily answered. That was not entirely dishonest. She was simply repeating the same thoughts she had a hundred times. A search for alternatives, she imagined, but she did not find any. Zoe and the others all expected her back at school. She promised Pierce she would finish her schooling at New Jersey State. She was just going to have to be careful and keep her eyes and ears open.

There was a loud crack and something scraped Emily’s arm before it lodged into the wall. Emily threw her brother to the floor and yelled, “Stay down,” as she crawled to the stairs where she rushed down to the front door. The man in the trench coat was out front near the streetlight. Emily turned off the lights in the front hall and went out to the darkened porch, hoping she might not be seen. She heard Marion’s shout.

“Police. Drop your weapon and put your hands up.”

The man turned and started to run in the opposite direction. He pulled his gun back out as he ran. He fired once to his rear and once toward Emily’s house when he saw her. Then at once he arched his back and without a sound he fell to the ground and the gun fell from his hand. Marion and Emily arrived at about the same time. The man had an arrow sticking out of his chest.

Emily looked up at the shadows down the street. There was a figure in the dark, and she called out. “Elf. Show yourself.” The figure slowly moved into the light, and it was unquestionably an elf, and not of this world. “What brings you here?”

“You, and my wife,” the answer came. “Boston and I still work for the Lockharts. I believe you met Katie.”

“Of course, how is the baby?” Emily hardly knew where that thought came from.

The elf shrugged. “Human.”

“Of course. Your wife?” She had to ask.

“Elfkind, but she was born human. She presently acts as Liaison between Avalon and the men in black.”

“Men in black? No, please excuse me?” Marion had her hand up like a school girl. “Who are you?”

“Roland. And I came with information.”

“I thought you came to save her,” Marion said and Emily hushed her.

“It is a message from Avalon. Several of the golden apples of youth have been stolen from Avalon by the rebel faction. They made their way to the doorway that leads to your university. That is all we know except to tell you that the apples are very dangerous in the wrong hands.”

“How so?” Emily wondered

“One big bite might delete a hundred years of life, and if you are only sixty,” Roland shrugged.

“Younger than your birth?”

“You would cease to exist.”

“And someone at the university has some of these apples?”

Roland nodded. “Lady Alice, that is Zoe said find that door and close it, and if someone offers you a big bite of a delicious, irresistible golden apple…resist it.”

Blue police lights came roaring up as Roland stepped away. A hole formed in the air—a hole to another place altogether where the stars were brighter than Marion or Emily had ever seen. Lieutenant Reese Anthony stepped out of the police car as Roland stepped through the hole, smiled for Emily and waved at Marion. Then the hole slowly closed until it winked out of existence like it was never there.

Lieutenant Anthony watched the elf disappear. He looked down at the dead man with an arrow sticking out of his chest. He shook his head. “I don’t want to know.”

“One good thing,” Marion said. “You will find this man’s gun killed the other two men.”

Emily nodded, but then had a thought. She bent down and grabbed the dead man’s trench coat by the sleeve. She ripped the coat sleeve, suit sleeve and shirt sleeve in one pull. The man’s arm had a small tattoo—a circle with three squiggly lines.

“What is that?” Marion asked. “A fastball?”

“No one knows. A secret society. Mindy says it has something to do with immortality.”

“The apples of youth,” Marion took Emily by the arm. “You can’t go back to that school.”

“But that’s the problem. I have to.”

************************

Thanksgiving has come and gone for Emily, and far from solving any mysteries, they just keep getting more complicated, and more intense. Be sure to return on Monday for the Elect II-9 Clues, to see what turns up.

Happy Reading

Elect II—8 Thanksgiving Break, part 2 of 3

November 22, 2016November 14, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Back in Columbus, Susan and Emily stopped in the food court so Susan could complain about Emily’s attitude. “You are so distracted.”

“What? You don’t like what I am wearing?” She was in a dress and her long winter woolen coat, a rich burgundy color with big brass buttons.

“No, you look fine, which for you is a bit of a miracle. But I mean you have money for Christmas presents and you are not anxious to spend it. Are you feeling all right?”

Emily smiled. Susan was famous for getting money from her parents to go buy presents for people and accidentally spending it on herself. “I’m just waiting until I find something for someone else,” Emily said and sat back. They heard the sound of a firecracker in the distance. The bullet split the table where Emily had been hovering over her burger. She grabbed Susan and dragged her to the ground over Susan’s very loud protests. Then Emily scooted from under one table to under another and slowly worked her way in the direction she imagined was the source of the gunfire.

The screaming started in a second, and people began to run as soon as they saw the man with the gun. As far as the man’s position was concerned, people running away was sort of a dead giveaway. The man craned his neck and tried to catch sight of Emily, but Emily was already closer than he was looking. Another moment and the man holstered his gun, having attracted far too much attention. He started toward the exit at the end of the food court, and Emily cursed softly because she was almost at the point where she could jump him.

The man suddenly doubled over and fell to the floor. Emily looked with her eyes but did not vacate her safe spot. There was another man by the exit. He was mostly hidden by a trench coat so Emily could not quite make out the man’s features, and he left before she could get closer.

Emily was fairly sure what happened, and confirmed her guess when she found the man on the floor soaked in blood. She turned him over. He took a bullet in the heart, and it was a perfect shot.

Susan stepped up to her shoulder and commented. “I see with you the violence has escalated. Back in high school you just beat people up.”

###

The following night, Emily went to her now annual Thanksgiving bowling tournament with Molly and Cathy. This time Marion, the police woman went along for the ride. They made her get some funky shoes and pick out a ball. Marion insisted she had not been bowling since high school herself, but Cathy thought that was a good thing because she might be someone Cathy could beat.

“Roll it this year,” Molly teased. “Throwing is cheating.”

Cathy explained for Marion. “Last year she got mad and put her ball through the back wall of the alley.”

Emily shrugged off her embarrassment, and when Cathy went first, Marion spoke quietly. “No identification on the man, but the guess is he is a drifter. He opened a bank account yesterday afternoon and five thousand got deposited.”

“Gee,” Emily responded. “I thought I would be worth more than that.”

“But who do you figure the other is? We haven’t a guess. A friend wanting you alive?”

Emily shook her head. “I was thinking rival gang wanting credit for the kill, like a competitor.”

Marion shrugged just before they heard the rat-ta-tat of a semi-automatic and both hit the ground. Molly caught a bullet in her shoulder. Cathy got shot in the leg. Marion and Emily escaped, and Marion had her gun out, but there was confusion in the alley. Once again people were screaming and running away.

Emily managed a peek around the corner into the next lane where a man sat, unmoving. He appeared frozen with fear. Otherwise, Emily could not see anything.

Marion risked rising up. Her hands sweated on her gun, but she had a clear lane, saw the man with the assault rifle coming close. She managed a shot. She hit him somewhere. His gun went off and two more people fell, bloody to the floor while he backed into the snack bar. There was a very long second before people rushed out of the snack bar, and both Emily and Marion caught a glimpse of a trench coat, but nothing more.

When the two of them got to the room where the woman behind the bar was cowering in the corner, they found the man with the rifle on the floor, dead. He had Marion’s bullet in his stomach, but the killer shot the man in the heart.

“Bet the bullet matches the other one,” Emily said.

“No bet, your majesty,” Marion responded.

Elect II—8 Thanksgiving Break, part 1 of 3

November 21, 2016November 14, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Detective Lisa left work worried about what might be happening at the house. Her husband Josh could not be there all the time for the children, and something was lurking around in the dark and the shadows. She caught glimpses of the stalker three times now, but all she could say was it was not human.

Josh kept the back outside light on after dark. He kept the front porch light on, and the one over the garage as well. He normally kept those two on for Lisa, for when she got home, but now they were doing double duty. He spied out the windows.

Megan, their eight-year-old daughter, sat in front of the television again. Josh considered canceling the cable contract. For some reason, certain cartoons had taken an unnatural hold on the girl. It was getting so he could not go through a whole evening without hearing about how she wanted to go to Florida.

“Boys,” he called up the stairs. He heard shuffling around before he got an answer.

“Yeah?”

“Anything out back?” More shuffling before the answer came.

“Mister Filbin’s shepherd got loose again.”

Josh jumped when the doorbell rang. He felt like he was under siege. Maybe he would talk to Lisa about Florida if she could take the time off. He opened the front door and shouted again.

“Boys. Grandma and Grandpa are here.” He welcomed them and let Megan tackle them while the boys rumbled down the stairs. Josh went once more to the kitchen window to try and see Mister Filbin’s dog, or whatever might be out there. He did not know all the details, but he heard about what happened at the university.

###

Anna Lee woke up to the sound of broken glass. The men crashed into her rooms and she moved, but as fast and as strong as she was, there were too many of them. She ended up unconscious, but managed to crawl under the table before she passed out. That was her salvation. In the middle of the floor, they would have tripped over her and likely would have made sure the job was done and might have thrown her body out the window. Under the table, out of the way, they ignored her. After they found what they wanted no one bothered to crawl under the table to make sure the job was finished.

When Matthew found her, she was still unconscious. They rushed her to the hospital and got her on a respirator, but the doctors were uncertain if she would recover. Matthew also noticed the concrete block was removed from the wall and the scroll was taken. He could not say what was on the scroll, but there were three things he could say. The scroll was in perfect condition, though Anna said it was over three thousand, six hundred years old. It was written in a language that Matthew never saw before or since, and he was familiar with the look of just about all of the ancient scripts. And Anna Lee said it was the most valuable piece of writing in history. It was secreted away and guarded since the time of Christ and it could bring about the end of the world if it fell into the wrong human hands.

Lieutenant Tomlinson of the New York Police Department knew he was out of his depth. He called Miriam at the FBI, and she called Lisa. She thought the scroll might end up at Jersey State in search of a translation. Jersey State did have some of the most sophisticated translation programs in the world down in the archives room.

Lisa went to the university and knocked on the door to the suite. Melissa was the one who answered. Sara was present, helping the girls pack for the Thanksgiving holiday. When Lisa stepped into the room, she went straight to Emily and hugged her. Then she told her. Anna Lee spent most of last Christmas in Columbus Ohio with Emily and her family. Emily cried.

“She has not regained consciousness, and the doctors are not optimistic, but she is an elect. Don’t count her out.”

“I need to go to her,” Emily said.

“You need to go home for Thanksgiving and see your family. Miriam at the FBI has her under twenty-four-hour surveillance. I will call you if anything changes. I just thought you should know.”

“What were they after?” Sara asked. Everyone stopped and stood around to watch and listen.

“A scroll, ancient.” Amina spoke first and shook her head to say she could not see any more.

“A scroll,” Lisa repeated with a nod. “And they found it. Mindy, there is a good chance it may turn up here. It seems it was written in some obscure, ancient language. They will probably need it translated. We need to watch for it.”

Elect II—7 Orcs on Parade, Part 3 of 3

November 16, 2016October 28, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Jessica grabbed Melissa and took the recruits into Captain Driver’s office as soon as Emily ran out. She pointed at Captain Driver’s gun safe. “Open it,” she said, as the others piled into the room.

“Oh, I don’t know if I can,” Melissa said.

“Sure you can,” Jessica insisted.

“I’ve seen you do harder things,” Maria said.

“Just to borrow?” Sara asked. When Jessica nodded she turned to Melissa. “I believe in you and it can’t hurt to try.” Melissa looked at Sara and nodded slowly.

“Here goes.” Melissa closed her eyes. After a moment, everyone heard three faint clicks, and the safe door swung open. No one was more surprised than Melissa, and that included Greta, Hilde and Natasha who until then had only heard rumors.

“I did it,” Melissa told Sara and Sara hugged her while the military retrieved their weapons. They loaded up plenty of ammunition.

“Sorry, Maria, but if Captain Driver complains I want to say only ROTC people used the rifles.”

“Wouldn’t touch one,” Maria said

“Me neither,” Sara added, but everyone figured that.

“I could try,” Melissa offered

“No,” Jessica responded. “You need to have your hands free.” She did not explain.

It was then that Diane came running in, yelling. “Weapons. I need a weapon.”

Jessica handed over her rifle and made a command decision. “Greta and Hilde go with her. Natasha, stay with me.”

“What? No.” Natasha wanted to complain, but Jessica interrupted.

“I need back-up. That’s an order soldier.”

Natasha straightened up. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Jessica smiled at Sara and Maria. “I always wanted to say that.”

Diane, Hilde and Greta ran out as Jessica got another rifle. Then the ones who remained went to the center of the gym. Jessica pulled over the pommel horse, Maria and Melissa, the vault. Sara and Natasha got the balance beam. They draped the floor mats over them all and in this way made a kind of fort in the center of the room.

“As long as orcs can’t come up through the ground, this is better than being against the wall,” Jessica said as she watched the doors. “Walls fall down.” Natasha and Melissa both got up on chairs.

“Better view,” Natasha said and pretended to look over the vault.

“Uh-huh.” Melissa agreed, but her eyes stared at the floor in search of orcs.

The door opposite the parade ground door began to shake. It was locked, but it only took a moment to rip it off the hinges. A monster of an orc came in first. He was four feet wide at the shoulders and his knuckles fell just short of dragging the ground. By contrast to the first one, the orcs that followed all looked like normal enough goblins, and some of them were no more than two or three feet tall.

Natasha got down from her chair and she and Jessica opened fire. Three of the orcs fell before a volley of arrows came in answer. The women all ducked, but Jessica caught one in her side. It was a lucky shot that slipped between a crack where two floor mats did not quite meet.

“Damn!” Jessica fell to the floor and Maria immediately hovered over her. A second volley of arrows came, but they all bounced and ricocheted away because of some unseen force. Melissa was still up on her chair and had her hands up.

“The wall can deflect some arrows,” Melissa said through a strained voice. “But I have no hope it will deflect a charge.”

“Help me up. Help me up,” Jessica complained, and Maria helped her sit and hold her rifle. The orcs looked ready to try that charge.

Sara, who had been silent in disbelief until then, was shaken back to reality by the sight of Jessica’s blood. She stood, shepherd’s crook in hand and hollered as loud as she could. “You hold it right there. Don’t you dare come any closer.”

The orcs paused. Sara glowed a little with a pure, white light. “Zoe protect us,” Sara added for good measure, and the orcs looked afraid to move forward.

The light that surrounded Sara appeared to spread as she spoke, but only to one side. Then it flashed brilliant for a second and when it went out, two dozen well-armed elves stood beside the small, makeshift fort. One ogre who seemed very eager for a fight, came with them. The elves ignored the women and the orcs quickly focused on the elves. The fight looked inevitable, as the monster that tore off the door, a distorted troll of some sort and the ogre charged each other. They would have torn the gym to shreds in moments, but something happened no one expected, least of all Sara. Zoe appeared between the two charging beasts, and she was dressed in the most ancient looking armor and decked out with a sword, a long knife across the small of her back and several other instruments of combat hanging here and there. Zoe threw her hands up and some force emanated from her hands that picked up the two combatants and flung them to crash into their respective walls, and she said one word.

“Enough!” The elves all went to their knees and dropped their eyes, no longer concerned with the orcs in the least while Zoe first turned on the orcs. “You don’t belong here,” she said. “Begone.” And they all vanished. There were no flashy lights or trumpets, they just were not there anymore.

At that point, Emily and her troop piled into the gym, and Heinrich at least had the good sense to follow the lead of the elves and fall to his knees. Amina was a bit slower, but she soon joined him, and Mindy followed her example, though her eyes never looked down.

“Good,” Zoe said and turned on the women in the fort. She spoke matter of fact, like she was speaking about the weather. “My rebellious ones have no business coming here. They can drill a hole in the atmosphere of Avalon, but the only way they can make it a passage to Earth is if someone here, on this side opens the door.” Zoe turned to the new arrivals. “My queen,” she said, and in a way that was possessive, not submissive. There might be other queens in the world, but Emily somehow belonged to Zoe. “You must find out who opened the door here and where it is and close it.” She smiled and turned finally to the elves. “Captain Riverbend.” The name was sharply spoken.

An elf, a female scooted a bit forward but dared not look up. “My lady?”

Zoe paused in a kind of dramatic moment before she softened her tone. “Thank you for helping my friends, but you don’t belong here either. Please take your troop back to Avalon before Lady Alice finds out.”

The elf looked up, and she was a pretty creature, and looked young. “But you and lady Alice are—”

“Hush. No need to get into that. Things here are complicated enough. Go on, now. And be sure to take the big, frightening, ugly, smelly, boil-faced brute of an ogre with you.” The humans all looked, though perhaps only Emily and Heinrich could look at the beast for more than a second, but instead of anger at the insult, it appeared the brute beamed with pride.

One man’s insult… Emily thought.

“Yes, my Lady,” Captain Riverbend responded and an archway appeared in the air in the gym. That was the only way to describe it as the gym remained, but through the arch there was some other place altogether with green grass and trees still in bloom; and it was everyone’s idea of lovely. The elves stepped through and the ogre followed and then the archway slowly shrank and disappeared.

“You, too, Mister Schultz.” Zoe had moved on to talk to Heinrich. “No stories of the Kairos if you please. These women have enough on their plates for present.” Then she turned to Maria and Jessica. “Now Maria. You have to get that arrow shaft out of her side before it festers.”

“But the blood,” Maria protested. “I’m not a surgeon.”

Zoe shook her head. “Lay on hands,” she said. “The spirit of Eir has not left you without gifts. Sara can help you understand how to lay on hands, but you are the one who must do it.”

Last of all she turned to Sara. “Priestess, you were chosen by the source for your tasks before the foundation of the world. Perhaps we all are, only we don’t see it.” Zoe stepped up and put out her hand, and Sara took that hand to shake before she realized what she was doing. “Now, you can just talk to me. I will hear you. And call me sometime. Maybe we can do lunch when things quiet down a bit.”

Zoe stepped away from them all and headed toward the back wall. “Emily, find and close that door, and solve my mystery. Apples are missing from Avalon. Something to do with immortality.” Zoe paused for a moment. “Immortality? Fools.” She sighed. “So much to do.” Zoe shook her head and walked right through the wall, and was gone.

Maria’s hands glowed with a golden glow. She and Jessica watched as the hole in Jessica’s side closed up. “You have still lost some blood,” Maria said. “I don’t know how deep the healing will go.” Jessica looked up, but she was not complaining. The pain was gone. Meanwhile, Maria had something to say to Sara. “By the way, Priestess, the phrase is not “hold it right there, don’t come any closer.” It’s, “You shall not pass.” And you need to bang your staff.”

###

The following day, Julie Tam from the Medical Examiner’s office called Lisa. “Tell Latasha it was arsenic, or something like it. Her instincts were right. Janet did not die of the drug overdose, though they stuffed enough drugs into her system to kill an elephant. I will be running more tests and give you a more complete report in a few days.”

“But where would drug dealers get their hands on arsenic?” Lisa asked.

Julie had some thoughts. Lisa took notes, but after that she decided to call Latasha herself.

Ashish was right there. “Are you going to tell her about Carlos?”

“Not yet, but she needs to know what to look out for.”

Elect II—7 Orcs on Parade, Part 2 of 3

November 15, 2016October 28, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Once outside, Diane did not have to take them far. There were a dozen nasty looking brutes a hundred yards off across the parade ground. Fortunately, there were no people between them and the orcs.

“We may need to run,” Heinrich whispered.

“Diane, go back to the others,” Emily said.

“I’m not afraid,” Diane said, though her voice shook a little.

“Not the point. You are unarmed. I said go back.”

“Yes Ma’am, Majesty.” Diane started out Army and turned Amazon. Mindy and Amina thought that was great.

“Arrows ready,” Heinrich said as the two parties stopped twenty yards apart. The orcs were hard to look at, not because they were especially frightening or ugly, but because they looked unstable. They were on earth, on the parade ground that doubled as a ball field in the summer, but they appeared to still have a foot in some other realm. Besides that, whatever they once were, elves, dwarfs, imps of one sort or another no one could say. They all appeared to share the same distorted, mean and pained expression.

“Why are you here?” Heinrich asked. “You do not belong here.”

One orc, no doubt the leader, took a step forward. “We were sent to find the called one and her coven of evil.” The voice was distorted as well as the face, and hard to hear without feeling the chill of death.

“And what will you do with her?” Emily had to ask.

“We will kill her and crush her bones and have her for our meat.”

“That doesn’t leave much negotiating room,” Mindy said quietly while Amina spoke over her head.

“The others. There are two groups.”

“Return to the Second Heavens while you can. You cannot survive here,” Heinrich ordered the orcs, not that they were likely to listen.

The orcs laughed, and Emily took that occasion to speak softly to her group. “Back away slowly, like from a wild dog.” She was anxious about the others. She chided herself for jumping before she had all the facts. She swore once again that it was a mistake she would not repeat, assuming she survived this encounter.

The orc laughter stopped as suddenly as it started. Diane, Hilde and Greta ran up from behind with military issue rifles. They must have busted into Captain Driver’s gun locker and ammunition box.

“Armed and ready, Ma’am.” Diane was all military that time.

Emily raised her sword. “Aim!” She skipped right over ready. “One warning.” She looked squarely at the orc leader. “Run,” she suggested.

At sight of the rifles, several of the orcs at the back began to move away. But the orc leader chose to be stupid and charged as Emily said “Fire!”

Of the orcs who braved the guns, five were struck immediately. One took two arrows dead center and went down, but the others continued on. The guns fired again. Mindy and Amina pulled their small knives, but counted on their bows to fend off any attacker until help could arrive. Heinrich took down two with his sword and without a sweat, but one went for the rifles and the other went after the archers.

The orc leader was the one who was miraculously untouched by arrows or bullets. He went straight for Emily. And he had a wicked looking sword with a jagged edge. Emily and the orc went thrust and parry for a good ten seconds, and Emily dropped her shoulder twice when she went for the orc’s legs. She remembered what Heinrich told her and scolded herself. When she dropped her shoulder the third time, the orc dropped his weapon to parry, only instead of aiming at the orc’s legs, this time Emily went for the arm. She sliced through the orc’s arm without even pausing at the bone. The orc dropped its sword with the arm and looked up, dumbly, as Emily followed up with a slice through the orc’s neck.

Greta and Hilde both shot the orc that attacked Diane. It collapsed before it reached the girl. Mindy and Amina double-teamed their assailant. While Amina blocked the orc’s big club with her bow, held like a staff, Mindy, the short one, slipped under and stuck her knife in the orc’s heart—or at least where a heart would have been in a human. The orc staggered and Amina jumped up and thrust her knife into the orc’s ear. Whatever hesitation Amina had with killing, apparently it did not include orcs.

“Quickly!” Amina shouted. “They are attacking the gym from the other side.” And they ran.

###

Latasha and Keisha walked to Janet’s house, Keisha happy to have her friends together again, Latasha with some trepidation, but she didn’t say anything. There was an ambulance out front. When they rang the bell, Janet’s mother looked to be in shock. Janet came home from an outing barely an hour ago, and now she was dead. Keisha burst into tears. Latasha called Detective Lisa. She would cry in a minute.

Elect II—7 Orcs on Parade, part 1 of 3

November 14, 2016October 28, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“I could be the hunter,” Keisha said. Latasha gave her a funny look, so she explained. “Well, I don’t have any magic power, and I’m not psychic. I figure the wise woman and healer are too much work. If I said priestess, you would laugh. So that leaves the hunter.”

“You can’t even find your backpack in the lunch room,” Latasha pointed out.

“Yeah, and what would Janet be? They don’t have a fat one, do they?”

“No. And be nice.”

Keisha’s phone rang. Janet was on the other end and she was getting a ride home.

“She wants us to meet her at her house,” Keisha said.

Latasha said nothing, but nodded. Maybe Janet was beginning to thaw toward her since they talked about Bobby Thompson and the drug delivery in the garage basement level.

###

Heinrich dropped his sword point and stepped back. “You are still dropping your shoulder when you back-swing toward the legs. You know where your opponent is, you should not have to look first.”

Emily frowned and ran a hand through her hair. She nodded and took a moment to look around. Jessica was helping Melissa learn the staff. They had the ones with the cushions on each end so they did not hurt much, but poor Melissa who only began these workouts in the fall kept taking it in the gut while Jessica kept explaining how to block that shot. Maria was off to the side working through her hand to hand techniques. Mindy was helping Amina try to hit something with an arrow. Amina was great with the staff and hand to hand, but she couldn’t shoot straight. It was like she was willing to hit someone, maybe even knock them out, but the idea of an arrow or knife cutting and maybe killing someone made her balk.

“Ready?” Heinrich finished wiping the sweat from his brow and tossed down his towel.

Emily shook her head and pointed to the back door. “I think you have a new pupil.” Sara came in, and she brought her shepherd’s crook, the one Heinrich had given her as a gift.

“Ah, priestess, welcome.” Heinrich was friendly and the others stopped and welcomed Sara as well. Melissa was especially happy to see the priestess.

“Priestess. Now maybe someone else can get punched in the stomach for a while,” she said.

Sara shook her head. “I’m still getting used to priestess. I know it is just the classical title, but it irks my Anglican nerves. There is a reason I am a Methodist.”

“Zoe called you priestess,” Amina said as if that should settle the matter.

“Yes, Sybil,” Sara responded in a kind tone of voice and nodded toward Emily for emphasis. “Your majesty. But that is another thing. I can’t hardly bring myself to talk to Zoe, much less pray to her.”

“I can answer that one,” Heinrich stepped up. “I guarantee, right or not, she does not want or feel worthy of prayer or praise. Just talking is what she prefers. Sorry, you will have to take my word on that for now. But here, let me help you learn what you can do with that staff.”

“Just so you know, I am a woman of peace, not war.” Sara looked around the gym and looked hesitant, though she came dressed in sweats.

“So was Father Martin,” Heinrich responded with a smile and an outstretched hand. “But he said there is nothing unchristian about learning to defend yourself and to defend the innocent.”

“Father Martin?”

“A disciple of Francis of Assisi.”

“A Franciscan?”

“No,” Emily said. “I think he means a disciple of Saint Francis himself.”

Heinrich nodded. “He was my age now, four hundred and seventy something when I was an impressionable youth of twenty something. He was a good man.”

Sara’s eyes widened a bit, but she took Heinrich’s hand and let him lead her into the middle of the room. “Paul is also having real problems with all of this,” she confessed.

“Your young man?” Heinrich pulled her in so she took his arm.

Sara nodded. “Paul is a lawyer, very logical. He took a job with the District Attorney’s office last year and was glad to hear I will be sticking around for the next three years.” She stopped and withdrew her hand and arm and stared at Emily. “Look, he has a hard enough time with me being a minister. Amazon priestess is freaking him out.”

“Don’t look at me,” Emily said with a deadpan face. “I killed my last boyfriend and the one before that turned vampire. I killed him, too.” Emily’s eyes watered a bit. “I am not the one to talk to about boyfriend troubles.”

“Invite him to meet us,” Amina said. “He will see we are just a bunch of normal women and nothing to worry about.”

“Ms Joel heard from?” Emily lost her tears and grinned as Amina darkened and looked at the floor; but she smiled at the mention of Joel’s name.

Sara looked around the room at all of the ones present before she made her pronouncement. “There is not a normal one here.” She bit her tongue. She knew she should say they were all special and gifted beyond reason, but at the moment she felt like saying they were all freaks.

Maria stepped up. “Actually, we are all facing the same problems with boyfriends. Okay, maybe Emily and I aren’t dating right now, but Amina and Joel are, Mindy just asked Bill out, Melissa is hanging out with Robert and Jessica has Brinkman wrapped around her finger.”

“Please!” Jessica interrupted. “I gave up boyfriends for lent.”

“Robert?” Emily asked with a look at Melissa.

“Later,” Maria said as Melissa turned red and looked away in her best Amina imitation. “Anyway, the point is you are not alone.”

“I did not choose to live four hundred and seventy years, which is not public knowledge by the way,” Heinrich said. “Emily did not choose to be one of the elect. The Spirits of Artemis and Eir chose their own vehicles in Jessica and Maria. Amina and Melissa had no say in whatever power they were granted, great or small. You are the only one who has graciously been given a choice, but you must choose. You have swum half-way, now will you turn and swim back or finish the journey?”

“I am here,” Sara said. “Priestess is still going to take some getting used to.” Everyone smiled happily, and several hugs were exchanged before Sara remembered. “Oh, Jessica and Emily, I brought your ROTC crew. They say they want to join the, um, tribe?”

“Yes, that’s right.” Mindy said it before Amina could.

Sara turned back to the door she came in and wondered. “I thought they were right behind me.”

Natasha came tumbling in after a second. She was winded, but said one word, loud. “Orcs.” She threw her hands to her knees as she breathed. “A bunch of them, heading this way.” Diane, Greta and Hilde followed Natasha in and Greta and Hilde started to bar the door.

“Wait!” Emily shouted and Greta and Hilde paused. “Mindy and Amina, get arrows, bring the bows. Diane, show me. The rest of you stay here. Jessica, prepare a defense.”

“After you,” Heinrich said. He still had his sword, but picked up a bow as well. Emily was not about to turn down the help and experience, but she looked again at Jessica and once at Sara. Jessica looked uncertain, but Sara assured her with her eyes and Emily felt the Priestess earned her place permanently with that look. There would be no going back.

Elect II—6 Secrets, part 3 of 3

November 9, 2016October 28, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Mindy spent a lot of time in the sub-basement beneath the Library where the archives were kept, and she searched through every tome that she, a mere undergraduate, was allowed to touch. It took a long time because she kept stopping to read, bad as she felt her Greek and Latin were. But it was all so fascinating. Meanwhile, she found nothing about the tattoo of the circle with the three squiggly lines apart from some vague references about the search for immortality, and they might not even be accurate or related.

She also searched through the archive database where some of the scrolls and more ancient writings were scanned into the system. Most of the materials had not yet been scanned. It was a new program, and she was not allowed to touch the originals, but she had a friend working on that. Bill was one of Papadopoulos’ graduate students and he was keeping his eyes open as he scanned his documents. So far, though, he had not found anything.

Mindy had not shown the symbol to Professor Papadopoulos, yet. She was not exactly sure why, except the time was not right. He was a busy man. When she was first asked about it, by contrast she went straight to Professor Schultz. Heinrich said he only recalled seeing the symbol once, carved on an old Roman column in front of a ruin, and knew nothing about it. At a guess, he said the column was probably from the third or fourth century, but he did not think the ruin was there anymore so there was no way to check. He imagined it fell victim to some war. “Napoleon, probably,” he said. “That man was an expert at accidentally blowing up ancient things with his cannon balls.”

It was late in the afternoon when Professor Papadopoulos came down into the basement. He had a man with him that Mindy did not recognize, a man with a slight limp, but he made a point of stopping by her reading desk so Mindy got a good look at the man.

“I know it is getting on winter,” the professor said. “But the sun is still out and the day is warm. I am not one to discourage my students, but you really should spend some time in the sun lest you end up old and pale like me.”

“I’m trying to research something and having a hard time finding anything about it,” Mindy went straight to the subject. She had drawn the symbol on paper to show because she imagined showing photographs of dead men’s arms was not the best approach. “Have you seen this symbol?” She handed over the paper. “A friend of mine says it is being used by some kind of secret society, like a fraternity or something, but she was wondering if I could find out what it stands for. So far I haven’t had any luck.”

The Professor showed it to his friend and looked again at Mindy as he spoke. “I’m sorry, I haven’t seen this before.”

“Probably some modern stylized version of a more ancient symbol,” the friend said, and he made a point of turning it upside down and right side up again. “Some kind of fireball?”

“A shooting star?” Professor Papadopoulos suggested. “Possibly some modern cult?”

Mindy took back the paper and held her tongue. She wanted to say she saw the symbol on a page of symbols in a book from the middle ages—unfortunately without a name or description of the symbol. She wanted to tell them about the carving on the Roman column, but she said nothing about that. “If you come across this symbol, would you let me know, please?”

“Of course,” Professor Papadopoulos smiled. “But I am sure you have other homework, too.” He touched his friend on the arm and walked back into the stacks. The friend limped after him. Curiously, the Professor never introduced the man, and he forgot all about encouraging Mindy to partake of the great outdoors. Professors could be like that, and Professor Papadopoulos was especially the absent minded professor.

“No help?” Bill came over after they left.

Mindy looked up at the man, but not for long. She stood on her tip-toes and kissed him smack on the lips before she said, “Keep looking.”

“What?” Bill was looking, but somewhere in outer space.

“A little encouragement,” Mindy said, and she thought if she was really going to be an Amazon there was no point in waiting for him to make the first move. Scholars were slow by nature. With Bill, she might wait forever. She gathered her books and put her hand to Bill’s shoulder. “Keep looking,” she repeated herself before she walked to the elevator.

“Right,” she heard him say that with conviction as the elevator doors opened, and it made her smile.

###

Lisa watched as the Cadillac pulled into the underground parking garage. A half-dozen young men in their late teens and early twenties were there, standing around making noises at each other, pretending to be tough. The Cadillac pulled into a parking space and two men got out. One had a semi-automatic in his hands. The other looked around and then walked to the back of the car to open the trunk. The young men lined up like children in a lunch line. The man at the trunk began to pull out brown paper packages tied with twine, and Lisa spoke into her microphone.

“Move in.” Then she started to hum “These are a few of my favorite things.” Ashish ignored her and brought the car in to block the exit. The lower level of the parking garage was a wonderful place off the street, where few cars went, with few prying eyes, but it was a terrible place if the police were watching. There were only so many ways out, and they could all be blocked.

Lisa and Ashish got out when everyone got in position. A dozen officers came from the four exits and Lisa spoke up. “Police. You are surrounded. Lower your weapons and put your hands up.” The man at the back of the car, the driver and the one with the semi-automatic had no hesitation in complying, but one of the boys reached into his jacket pocket. “Don’t be stupid,” Lisa shouted. “Dead is forever.” The young man did not listen. He drew the gun, jumped away from the others, fired twice in the direction of the voice, hit nothing and ran in the opposite direction. He caught at least three bullets in return fire and went down.

The police let the ambulance right in as they cuffed the others. “Good thing the ambulance was waiting,” Ashish remarked. “Why does one always have to be stupid?”

Lisa could only shrug. She got out her phone now that they were out of the underground. She wanted to call Latasha and let her know that Janet’s information was accurate but Bobby Thompson was not there, and she thought, neither was Carlos.

Elect II—6 Secrets, part 2 of 3

November 8, 2016October 28, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Latasha and Keisha walked down to the corner store for some junk food. It was the middle of November, but not cold. In fact, they were talking about an Indian summer. They had not had one of those in a while. Latasha thought she was good company, but all she could think about was Janet. She missed her friend and felt all along it was stupid to lose their friendship over a boy, especially one like Bobby Thompson the drug dealer.

In the past two weeks, Latasha spent time with Wendy and Mini, two friends she thought she lost after the eighth grade. They were in her class with Ms Riley and noticed the teacher seemed to like Latasha. They liked Latasha too, and she liked Wendy and Mini well enough, but they were students back when Latasha was still making a joke of it all. Latasha wondered if maybe their friendship faded because she was the negative influence they wanted to get away from. Probably so.

“You know if you eat that you will get a big butt,” Latasha said. Keisha picked up the golden cakes with the crème filling.

“What’s wrong with that, Slinky?” They started calling Latasha Slinky in middle school because the taller Latasha got, the skinnier she appeared. Technically she was Lanky. Emily’s friend Maria said she had a high metabolism which showed itself in the way she was always moving, flexing her fingers, tapping her foot. It was just nervous energy, Latasha thought, but she did it even when there was nothing to be nervous about.

Latasha rounded a corner in the store and stopped. Janet was there and Keisha was looking at the chips.

“Hi,” Janet said.

“Hi,” Latasha responded and wondered if Keisha set this up as a kind of neutral ground. Whether she did or not, Latasha was going to take advantage of this one chance. “I’m sorry I can’t think good thoughts about Bobby Thompson. I’m glad you have a boyfriend, but I’m sorry he has come between us.” She got it out, though it was not exactly what she meant to say.

Janet just looked at Latasha for a moment before she burst into tears.

Latasha and Keisha went to her. They began to escort her outside where they could find a more secluded place and Janet might not be so embarrassed, but the clerk shouted at them.

“Hey, you have to pay for that.”

Keisha let go and stepped over quickly to slam her things on the counter. She gave the heartless clerk a mean stare and smashed the golden cakes, accidentally. Then she rushed to hold the door for her friends.

When Janet calmed down enough to talk she said Bobby turned mean. “He said he liked his women fat and stupid. I’m not fat and stupid.”

“No, you’re not,” Keisha said. Latasha said nothing as Janet turned to talk directly to her.

“He said he only let me get close to him so he could keep an eye on you, but if I stopped being your friend, I was useless to him. He said his supplier said you were dangerous.”

“We are still friends,” Latasha said, but the back of her mind painted a different picture. It said that Janet wanted to be friends again so she could be useful to Bobby, so he would like her again. That told Latasha that maybe Janet was indeed as stupid as she was fat. “Forget Bobby Thompson. You are a great girl. One day you will have a real boyfriend who loves you for who you are and not just because you are useful.” Latasha said it, but the look on Janet’s face said she did not believe it.

“So, do you want to hang out at my house for a while?” Keisha offered the middle ground and Janet and Latasha agreed.

Elect II—6 Secrets, part 1 of 3

November 7, 2016October 28, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily came out from her room and saw everyone sitting in their usual places. She got her chair and joined them with a casual word. “So I think I saw Pierce’s brother today. I’m not sure because he ran off before I could ask him any questions.” Emily felt the sudden tension in the room and looked at everyone in turn. Jessica spoke first.

“We saw him the other day, during midterms.” Jessica tried to keep the same casual tone to her voice, but Maria thought it necessary to apologize.

“We didn’t say anything because we didn’t want to upset you.”

Emily looked around and Melissa nodded and looked into her orange soda while Mindy nodded and looked at Jessica. Amina had her hand up.

“I wasn’t there, but I knew he was around. I did not say anything because he did not feel like a threat.” Emily frowned at her and she looked away. “I am sorry. I am still learning what to say and what not to say of what I see. I am sorry.”

“It’s all right,” Emily assured her. “But this is just the sort of information we need to share. We need to not keep secrets from each other. And while I think of it,” she looked again at Amina. “If you want to go out with Joel, you don’t need my permission. I’m not your mom. You keep saying we are Amazons, start acting like one.”

“Saved by the knock,” Amina said, and then there was a knock on the door. It was Sara, the Priestess, and she brought a copy of the picture Jessica drew.

“I got this from Lisa. She got it from Latasha who showed it to her science teacher who is apparently a very mysterious person. She says it was an ogre or troll, but turned orc. That means an earth spirit in rebellion.”

“I said ogre or troll,” Mindy piped up.

“And I would guess where there is one, there are probably others,” Emily said. Amina nodded.

“Lisa said she may have seen one skulking around her house,” Sara added.

“Zoe’s mystery, do you think?” Maria suggested. “Like maybe some escaped from wherever it is they belong.”

Jessica had a different thought. “I never had cool teachers like that back in high school.”.

###

Jessica sat quietly in her environmental science class and looked around. The lecture hall was half empty. She thought it might be Professor Maynard’s teaching style. The woman was more boring than a drill. Then she thought it might be the subject matter. Emily had the class freshman year and described it perfectly. It did not matter what the book said, Maynard blamed the human race for every ill on the planet. It did not matter how twisted and tortured the logic, Maynard made it clear she thought the earth would be better off without people.

Emily warned her not to take the class, but she needed a science class and figured this would be an easy “A.” All she had to do was blame humanity for everything in her tests and papers and move on. Apparently a number of other students figured it out as well, but she was still surprised they were not in class. Attendance counted as part of the grade.

“All right.” Maynard put down her chalk and stopped lecturing. That caused Jessica and others to start paying attention, at least temporarily. “Professor Orlov and I are still in need of additional volunteers. We have plenty of Center for Disease Control money so we can pay you for your time. We are mapping the relationship between the brain and immune system in combination with certain environmental factors. We need samples only, and no, I don’t mean brain samples, and it won’t hurt. Please consider volunteering.” Professor Maynard smiled, but it was a pitiful thing. “Class dismissed.”

Jessica stepped out of the building and saw Mindy, Melissa and Amina walking toward the campus center. She thought she might join them, but then she might not. She felt frustrated, pointless, unworthy… She could not find the right word.

The Priestess was right. All of the other girls were seriously talented and special in some way, and Sara, the Priestess, was just as talented in her own way, even if she did not see it in herself. Jessica wondered, what a hunter was, anyway? Did that mean she had to become a redneck and take her bow and arrows out in deer season? Fat chance of that happening in Beverly Hills. She felt useless.

Okay, she said to herself. Emily and the others expected her to be in charge when Emily was not around, but what did that mean, really? Okay, she joined ROTC because she discovered she could do things she never imagined, like all the physical stuff and fighting and weapons. Oddly enough she found the course work interesting as well, unlike Maynard’s stupid class. But what did that really mean?

Jessica shook her head and thought of Jack. She thought, Jessica Brinkman and wondered if every woman thought such things at the beginning of a relationship, just to see how the name fit. He was nice. She really liked him, not the least because they shared so many interests, including the army.

Jessica made up her mind. She was going to sign up for a time of service. The upper class of ROTC, the junior and senior class was only for those who signed up for service after college. And she might marry Brinkman, or someone like him, and be an army wife. That would not be bad. And then she could put all this Amazon stuff behind her and not feel useless anymore.

Jessica stepped down to the walkway and made another decision. She was going to change her major to political science. She really did not like business. She knew her CEO father would not be happy, but he could not be more upset than he was when she told him she was going into ROTC.

She paused.

Jessica’s nose went up into the air to get a good whiff. Something did not smell right. There was a fire somewhere. She stepped around the corner toward the faculty parking lot and found a small campfire made mostly of twigs. Three students, two boys and a girl were bouncing around it, excited, touching it and pulling their hand back to lick with their tongue and stick their fingers in their mouth. It was like they never saw fire before. Jessica recognized the girl.

“Megan, you missed Maynard’s class.”

The girl looked up and Jessica saw nothing behind those eyes. The girl shrieked and the boys echoed the sound, and they all ran off toward the distant woods.

“Hey, your fire. Hey!” Jessica yelled, but they did not respond. Jessica stomped out the stick fire and commented out loud. “That was weird.”