Probably the most interesting thing he took out of the casual meeting with Daiyu and the follow-up was the fact that despite being a nerd, at least one pretty woman had found him attractive. He hadn’t really noticed it before but thinking about it on the way home from the airport, he came to the realization that things had changed. Whereas his usual treatment at the hands of pretty women was polite indifference, since the, ahh, magic revolution, yes, that was the term, it was clear that women tended to be friendlier towards him generally. There was nothing overt, and he quite obviously hadn’t suddenly become a hunk! But even so, he was getting the occasional smile here and there rather than the usual polite indifference. Daiyu had gone out with him repeatedly, and when she was all dolled up for an evening out, she really was a glamour, no two ways about it. Hmm. He was beginning to really like this sorcerer caper! Of course, it was his much fitter body, toned muscles from gym workouts with the team, and so forth, which probably had more to do with the apparent change in his attractiveness to the opposite sex than the magic he hid from everyone!

Chapter 13

Work’n for the man

England was cold and damp. At least that was his first impression coming from California. He stayed a night in London and was glad he had a week at the end of the ‘dig’ to do some sightseeing as there was so much history in the city. He chose to take the train to Carlisle, which was fast, not as fast as flying, but still pretty damn quick, and he got to see more of the countryside. Besides, The County, where the team was staying, was literally around the corner from Carlisle railway depot, or station, as they called them here in England. They were supposed to meet in the bar area about seven that evening, and he had arrived relatively early. As it turned out, he had no trouble booking in, being shown to his room, and still had time for a quick shower before getting down to the bar on time. He spotted Franny almost immediately, with her boyfriend, and a small group of young people, and a couple of older ones.

Everyone appeared to have a drink already, so he wandered over to the bar first, procured a scotch then headed over to the group. When he’d mentioned he was going to England to some of the lads from the Australian football team, they’d told him in no uncertain terms to be wary of the beer. Piss weak and warm were the most common terms used to describe English beer!

Franny happened to turn in his direction as he approached the group. “Jason!” Franny almost screamed, clearly delighted to see him! She rushed up and got the obligatory hug and kiss on the cheek before she dragged him over to the boyfriend, who shook his hand.

“You remember Louis, Jason. Yes. He is not staying for the dig but will come over on the weekends. Ah. Professor Schmidt. This is Doctor Jason Lerner.” She presented him to the older, more grey-haired of the two senior members of the group. “Jason, this is Professor Heinrich Schmidt of Berlin University. He is head of the dig.”

“Herr Professor,” Jason said, taking the man’s hand.

“Ha. Call me Heinrich.” The Professor said in German and was obviously watching Jason’s reaction.

“Yes, Heinrich. Please call me Jason.” He answered in German, then swapped to English. “That exhausts my German; I am sorry.”

“That is not a problem. And this is Professor John Armstrong from the University of Liverpool.” The Professor replied in faultless English. Jason shook hands with the slightly younger academic. “So. You are ‘The Expert’ on Linear A, and now you want to dig a Roman site?”

Sorry – a bit late this week


He’d never managed to chat a girl up at a convention before, so at least a maybe she will call was an improvement over his previous efforts. Just his luck that he’d find someone nice, and she’d be leaving the country almost immediately. His amorous adventures had all been fairly lame over the years. Most girls found him too nerdy and not all that attractive, a truth he had realized many years ago in High School when none of the pretty girls would give him so much as the time of day. The one girlfriend he had ever really had, had been a very strange, not all that attractive, girl who was his own age, whom he had gone out with for a couple of months just after he started college. He quickly decided that she was slightly mentally unstable. Her instability had become abundantly clear to Jason after only a few dates. Even after breaking up with her, it had taken him a couple of months to get her to leave him alone! She had so many mental issues it was almost scary being alone with her at times. Today, though, having a rather attractive girl give him a maybe was somewhat of a giant leap forward, all things considered!

He had tried some of the dating apps but never met anyone who had proved to be at all interesting in person. In fact, he was becoming quite disillusioned with those apps as he very rarely got any response, and the few responses he did get, well, the person he met, was usually nothing like the person he imagined he would be meeting from her profile on the app. Besides, with all his study load, girlfriend finding had largely been a summer break thing anyway.

      By their third date, he was used to the bodyguards always being in the background, and they had relaxed, just a little, with him. They had enjoyed long evenings of chatting about anything, and everything, of comparing stupid television shows the general populace of their respective countries appeared to enjoy and what video games she liked to play and the ones she didn’t like. Apparently, playing video games was one of her favorite ways of getting rid of the tension she often felt because of the restrictions placed on her due to her father’s position. Jason thought he would have gone mad having the same restrictions placed on him as she had growing up!             Their fourth date was the last. Jason tried hard not to be disappointed by their time together coming to an end, but she promised to come back to the US once she had finished College, and he promised to come to China if she didn’t! His single biggest regret was that they were never really private together, at least private enough where both of them would have been comfortable making love. She had hinted that she wasn’t averse to the idea, but the opportunity never arose. He saw her off at the airport, her bodyguards being surprisingly relaxed about him tagging along, but then he supposed they weren’t concerned as they were heading home, apart from the occasional references to her having to give up her Laowai boyfriend. He was finding it hard to let her go, never having met anyone whose company he had enjoyed so much. Was this what real love felt like? He didn’t know, never having felt this way before, but what he did know was that he was half tempted to fly to China and further his acquaintance with her. Not that he would have been allowed to contact her, even if he did fly to China.

“Normal students don’t have security details.” He informed her but smiled to lessen the sense of interrogation. “And they do not ask strangers if they who know they are, in the sense of being a someone and a person they should probably recognize.” He paused. “Which I don’t; however, I am guessing Chinese, perhaps the Ambassador’s daughter?”

She looked down for a moment before lifting her head with the look of someone who had made a firm resolution.

“My father is Lin Chou!” Her tone was a combination of proud and challenging.

Jason kept his face impassive as he racked his brain for who Lin Chou was. And then he realized. Oh shit! The Chinese Premier! He managed a shaky smile.

“Interesting. that explains the bodyguards, of course. So, have you enjoyed your time at USC?”

If she was surprised by his low-key response, she hid it well, simply nodding in reply and smiling. “Yes, very much. I wish I could have made it longer, two or more semesters, but it was impossible. It took months of arguments to get my father to allow me to come for just this one semester!”

Jason tried to look sympathetic. “How far along your degree are you?”

Daiyu waved her hand. “This is my third year. I am trying to decide whether to continue next year, which my father favors, or just try and get a real job. It will depend a bit on what happens at the Party conference later this year.”

Jason reflected that being the daughter of the Premier would no doubt be both a good thing as far as getting a job and a bad thing in not knowing whether you got the job because of your skill or who you are the daughter of. Interesting conundrum and something he supposed a lot of kids with famous parents would be affected by. It was never going to be his problem, of course. Still, she was pretty! And smart!

“You are only here for another two weeks, you said?” She nodded. “Damn. Well, can I take you out to dinner, say, tomorrow night?” He smiled at her.

She shook her head.

“I am not supposed to go out with American boys.” She replied but then stopped and cocked her head sideways. “You would not mind if my watchdogs come along with us, would you?”

He grimaced internally as that would limit how far things could go, but he managed a smile anyway.

“As long as I have your company, you can bring a whole squad of bodyguards.”

God, that sounded so lame. In fact, his whole conversation had been far lamer than anything he had ever attempted with an American girl. Hmm. Maybe there was a lesson there!

She laughed though at his sally. “We shall see. What is your number?”

He gave her his number, and she promised to call him the next day, one way or the other. Not wanting to push things, he let her wander off after they finished their lunch. Besides, he was booked into a seminar that afternoon, while she wanted to listen to a talk by a particular writer which happened to be on at the same time as the seminar. Oh well, hopefully, she will call, he thought to himself as he moped through the convention until he reached the auditorium where the seminar was being held. That had been by far his most successful chance meeting with a girl he had ever had, and while feeling hopeful, he was also miffed that it was not going to lead anywhere.

They luckily found an unoccupied table near the rear of the area, and the girl chose the seat that put her back to the wall without hesitation. Jason noted this almost unconscious preference and wondered once more who she was. He took his seat and smiled.

“I am Jason Lerner.” He offered with a smile.

“Pleased to meet you, Jason Lerner.” She hesitated, glancing to where Jason assumed the guards were stationed somewhere behind him, before shrugging and smiling back. “My name is Lin Daiyu.”

Jason reached out with his hand in a way that caused her to assume he intended for her to shake hands with him. However, as her hand reached his, he took hold of it and quickly turned it palm down; he brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of her hand lightly before she realized what he was about. The whole thing happened so quickly that she was either too surprised to react by pulling her hand away, or else she decided to go with the old-fashioned action. She certainly smiled charmingly at his bravado.

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Daiyu.” He offered smoothly, recognizing the Chinese name word order.

Her eyes widened at his use of her personal name, but after a moment, her smile became even broader, if anything.

“And I am pleased to meet you, Jason.” She replied.

They both started eating, and Jason found himself feeling he should know who she was, but nothing was popping into his head. He began to get getting frustrated with himself but kept up an amiable front.

“Do you live here in the States?” He asked between bites.

She continued to smile but shook her head.

“No. I am here at USC on a one-semester exchange doing a Political Science degree. I go back in two weeks.” She lost her good humor with this admission, and Jason got the clear impression she was not keen on going home. She glanced at him under her brows.

“I like your costume. I don’t recognize the character, but it looks very good. Did you make it yourself?”

“Well, I designed it. But I had a professional actually make it up. Sewing is not really my forte.” He answered. “I’m glad you like it. It’s my sorcerer outfit.” He paused a moment. “I don’t really get to wear it much except at these things.” He waved his hand to encompass the convention. “It’s a bit much to wander around in normally. People give you funny looks if you go shopping at the local mart dressed like this.”

He tried to keep a serious, deadpan expression on his face as he said this.

She saw the joke and laughed. “I can imagine.”

He snickered a little in sympathy with her and then decided to stick his neck out. “So, who are you?”

“What do you mean?” She replied, attempting to act innocent.

He smiled and waved idly to where the watchdogs were camped at a table near the door. One was watching them, and the other was watching who came and went through that orifice.

“Half the way to ….” She queried, puzzling over the reference, then her head jerked up, looking into his face searchingly as she blushed slightly.

 “You, you are presumptuous!” She declared, but there was a twinkle in her eyes and a slight upturn at the corners of her mouth that Jason duly noted.

She was not entirely averse to this style of approach, it appeared to Jason, given the twinkle in her eyes and the slight upturning of the corners of her mouth. He was doing better with her than any girl he had ever attempted to chat up in the last three years!

He swapped back to Mandarin.

“”When the enemy gives you an opening, be swift as a hare, and he will be unable to withstand you.” He bowed and then reverted to English. “I can but try, lovely lady. I would truly like to buy you lunch if I may.”

She studied him for a few moments with a crease between her eyes as she considered him. Would she really agree to have lunch with him?

Finally, she asked. “Sun Tzu?”

He was a little surprised by her question, not realizing she was still thinking about the quote. And, of course, his lunch invitation was being simply ignored. That was more the normal response girls gave him. Oh well, so be it, but he decided for one last try and bowed again.

 “Very good. Have you had lunch yet?”

He waved his arm back the way he had come from in the direction of where the food court lay.

She looked annoyed for a second, presumably at his persistence, but found something in his face and smiled.

“No. I was just heading there, in fact.”

He bowed again and then held out his arm with the elbow held out from his body and crooked in the fashion of a medieval prince, inviting her to rest her hand on the back of his hand.

“May I accompany you?” He smiled at her.

This time she surprised him and started to laugh, then obviously recalled his earlier boldness and stifled it. She reached up and placed her hand on his arm.

“Very well. I know I am going to regret this, but your boldness deserves some reward.”

She gave him a quick smile before looking resolutely forward as she accompanied him as they promenaded down the corridor doing their best to imitate a medieval monarch and his lady, the two heavies forming the entourage. Ha! He thought to himself. Boldness actually paid off. Interesting. And even stranger was the manner in which people tended to get out of their way. Weird.

The food on offer was the typical range available at cons. Jason wondered if perhaps the same vendors traveled around the country, inflicting the same, well, not atrocious, but certainly very ordinary, fare on geeks from coast to coast at the highly inflated prices that all such events seemed to require. She didn’t appear overly keen on trying the so-called Chinese food on offer. After a period of unexcited perusal of the various foodstuffs available, they settled on two Caesar salad wraps. Jason went with a latte, feeling the need for caffeine, while his companion settled for an orange juice.

“I was distracted as well, lady, and owe you an apology for my clumsiness.”

He had learned Mandarin from one of his first tutors in college, who had been a Ph.D. student from Shanghai. They had hit it off, and Jason’s interest in Sun Tzu led him to take Mandarin as an elective for two semesters, and he had used it with Lee and a few of Lee’s friends. Urasmian’s spell apparently worked for old memories as well, as he had no trouble trotting out his somewhat limited Mandarin even though he hadn’t used the language for a few years.

She appeared both surprised and, if anything, became even more wary because of his use of Mandarin.

“You know who I am?” She asked, looking concerned and backing away a little more.

The heavies seemed to tense up and move as if getting ready to block him or perhaps take him down.

He shook his head, reverting to English.

“Only that you are a very attractive young lady who I nearly flattened by not watching where I was going. I feel I owe you something for my stupidity. Lunch, perhaps?” He smiled broadly.

Such open flattery and broad invitation rarely worked in these sorts of situations, as he well knew, but then this would be his only opportunity to get to know her, he surmised, having no idea who she was or where she was from. At college, you could at least get some idea of a girl’s timetable and could plan “chance” meetings based on that information. Not that his tactics had led to him getting anywhere most of the time, but the poor results were not so much a reflection of how effective the tactic was, but rather his low appeal to women!

She looked up into his face, puzzled and a little uncertainly.

“You really have no idea who I am?”

He shook his head. “None whatsoever.”

He paused, deciding his best approach. Hmmm. Oblivious ordinary male or someone awake on all accounts. She looked rather studious and very serious.

“You are obviously someone of importance given the guard dogs giving me the eye.” He tilted his head slightly, noting her eyes widening at his admission of noticing her guards. “Having two fellows watching my attempt at picking you up is a bit intimidating, I will admit, but fortune favors the brave, and you are very pretty.”

He kept smiling at this blandishment, hoping she would decide it was funny or at least so pathetic she felt she had to take pity on him. She even smiled slightly at his words which was something at least.

“So, you are trying to pick me up, are you?”

“I am now.” He replied promptly, catching her by surprise.

“It’s not every day a pretty girl literally throws herself into my arms.” He twitted her, still smiling.

She looked affronted at this.

“I did not throw myself into your arms!” She admonished him but then saw the twinkle in his eyes. “You, you are laughing at me.”

“No, I am trying to make you laugh. If a girl laughs, you’re half the way to first base.” He said blandly, watching her reaction closely as it was likely she did not know the term.

Jason had hardly made it in through the entrance before he found his eyes drawn to the extremely attractive blond in the revealing superhero costume coming down the passageway in the other direction. She walked confidently despite the very skimpy costume she wore, with that arrogant confidence of those who are either too good-looking or too rich to care about the reactions of their fellow humans. The girl never once glanced at the people moving in the opposite direction as she strode along, keeping her head turned solely in the direction of her travel.  As she passed him, Jason turned to catch a view of her from the rear and decided that she looked almost as good from that angle as from the front.

The numerous people passing in both directions soon hid her from view, and he turned back to continue in the direction he had been traveling in. He dodged around a group of large people, probably an extended family, given the similarity in looks and build, just in time to notice movement to his left, and he realized that he had reached the entrance to the TV and screen auditorium. There he found himself face to face with a girl of Asian features traveling in the opposite direction and not watching where she was going.  The girl’s attention was directed into the auditorium he had been heading for, and she was oblivious to his approach. Reacting quickly, he moved his staff out of the way in case she hurt herself but, being wrong-footed, failed to dodge completely successfully as she plowed straight into him, his arms closing about her to hold them both steady as she emitted a startled “Oof.”

Although she appeared to be fairly young, and her body was quite thin, he could feel it squishing against him quite nicely as they came together. Her startled expression only made her already attractive face appear even more intriguing.

“I’m terribly sorry.” He said, smiling broadly but not actually letting her go.

She looked up into his face, startlement giving way to wariness, but she made no immediate move to pull away, perhaps too surprised to react.

“I am sorry too.” She said in a pleasant, slightly accented voice.

She quickly glanced around as if looking to escape, and Jason released his hold on her, not wanting to frighten her. Then, at the edge of his vision, he noted movement in their direction by two large Asian men in plainclothes who were unlikely to be geeks and, from the way they were moving purposely in their direction, were perhaps security guards of some type. Perhaps she had been more concerned with them taking action than frightened of him, he thought. Was she trying to escape them?

Stepping slightly back, she gave him a little bow and made some motion with her left hand that caused the two men to stop their determined approach through the streaming groups of people. So they were guards, not pursuers. Probably a good thing, he thought to himself, realizing he had nearly been faced with the first test of his determination not to show off his abilities in public.

“I beg your pardon.” She said rather formally. “I was not watching where I was going.” Jason was even more intrigued by noting the hand signal and the immediate halting of the two large security-type fellows. So, who was this attractive but otherwise ordinary-looking girl? Getting a better look at the heavies, he realized the guards were not just generically Asian but looked Chinese or possibly Korean like the girl appeared to be, as she didn’t really look Japanese. He tried Mandarin.

Sorry folks – I now have a new computer – do I need to say more?


After the first training session, his hands hurt from punching the ball in the Aussie passing method. One hand would hold the ball steady with it resting on top of the palm, and then the other hand, made into a fist, connected with the end of the ball using the inside of the fist where the thumb curled around. The best passers made the ball rotate backward and it reached their targets with surprising accuracy, even over twenty yards or more. By the end of the two weeks of training, he was tired, his leg muscles hurt, his hands hurt, and he could run further for longer than he had ever been able to in his whole life.

The training rapidly became tedious, but when the actual season started, he found he quite enjoyed playing even if he was nowhere near as good as the seasoned players, especially the ex-patriate Aussies. The bumps, scrapes, and bruises he accumulated rather readily were all part of the fun, apparently! Certainly, the other guys seemed to throw themselves about with wild abandon, even though they didn’t wear pads, and he found himself trying to emulate them. One of those unique tenets that many sports have is that in Aussie Rules, you really did have to get stuck in when it was your turn to go. No one wanted to be known as a wimp! Not having any pads on made it damn scary at first, but he found he quickly got used to the physical contact, learned to make subtle adjustments to his positioning, and even started to enjoy the whole thing up to a point.

His folks were bemused by his sudden athleticism and even more so when they discovered he was playing Australian Football! Still, all this physical activity did seem to improve his stamina considerably when it came to using his magic. Translocating items a few hundred yards, two or three times in quick succession, no longer left him weak and worn out. Shoving things around using his kinetic force push spell thing became easier and easier. The temptation to try out the translocating between Earths grew with his increased performance and stamina, but he kept himself under control, although he did spend a lot of time considering the matter.

He was fairly sure that using that same spell and moving fifty Earths east would presumably get him to the Earth that Urasmian was from, in the same relative location, going on Urasmian’s experience. But the spell didn’t let him take much with him, just what he was wearing, apparently. Or, maybe, things that he was touching? There was much food for thought there, but until he decided to try translocating to a different world, there was no way of knowing the answer to a lot of his questions. When he translocated locally, he took everything he was wearing plus anything he was holding in his hands with him. And he was afraid to try translocating to another Earth until he had more confidence in his abilities. Or perhaps he was just afraid? Hmm. Yes. He had to admit he was quite scared of jumping to another Earth. One had to be honest with oneself, after all.

Chapter 12

China girl

Condor Con wasn’t the biggest or the best of the Cons, but it was the first Con that Jason had ever attended and therefore held a soft spot in Jason’s heart. He would never forget the excitement he had felt when his dad had led him through the entrance of the Convention for that very first time! Nowadays, of course, he went to conventions as much for the ‘scenery’ as for the special guests and events at the Cons. And this year, he went as himself, or at least his magical superhero alter ego! Ha. Where else can you dress like a superhero without drawing attention to yourself? At a fantasy Con, of course!

Sorry for being erratic lately people- had stuff going on. Here is a double snippet to help makeup

He started to spend a lot of time reading fantasy novels looking for magic spell ideas, between practicing his own magic and just lazing around. After years of school followed by university, where his whole life had revolved around study, study, and then even more study interspersed with bouts of writing essays, this being able to loll around doing little if he didn’t want to was very welcome! He imagined the novelty would wear off pretty soon, but he intended to enjoy his newly found idleness as much as he could in the short term!

His Steam account grew substantially as he tried all those games he had always wanted to play but had not bought either for fear of interrupting his studies or because he simply lacked the money to waste on games! He wondered if his parents understood just how much self-discipline he had developed over the last few years. Even after he started earning money part-time, which meant he could afford to buy a selection of games, he resolutely denied himself!

He studied the casinos at Atlantic City online and spent a long weekend there, flying in on the Friday and leaving on the following Monday. He stayed at one of the casinos with the highest table stakes but only played at their tables in short sessions, spending more time at the surrounding casinos. He left with forty thousand in cheques and nearly thirty thousand in cash! Woot! On the long flight back, he thought again about getting his own place but, in the end, decided against it for the moment. Instead of renting, what he’d rather do was buy a place of his own outright. He didn’t have anywhere near enough money to manage such a purchase outright, and with no job, it meant he wouldn’t be able to get a loan to buy something. Right. He decided he would just continue to save the money until he could buy something, and this became his game plan for the moment. Plus, he would use the loose cash for anything small he bought to hide it from the taxman!

He had also been contemplating the fact that he knew about multiple Earths. Urasmian came from an Earth that was fifty worlds east of Jason’s Earth. That meant there were forty-nine other Earths between here and there! It was kind of mind-boggling! On Urasmian’s Earth, things had gone very differently, apparently. So, what other alternate histories were out there? A world where Hitler won World War Two? One where the Roman Empire never fell? Oooh, one where the dinosaurs didn’t die out! He spent a lot of time considering the possibilities, although he refrained from actually trying to travel to a different Earth, at least not just yet. Using the magic spells he had discovered and developed so far left him drained and tired after just a little bit of use, so he had no wish to find himself on a planet of sorcerers while worn out and unable to do any magic himself!

One of the fantasy magic book series he enjoyed had a protagonist who stressed how physical exercise increased his stamina and made throwing around magic spells easier. He started going for a run every morning and discovered just how unfit he was! And yes, after a couple of weeks, the magic seemed to come easier and not tire him out quite as much. He found a karate dojo not too far away and started that sport but decided that while it was worthwhile, in many ways, it wasn’t the aerobic sport he was seeking. After thinking about the matter for some time, he considered trying soccer and even hunted up a local team on the internet, but before he tracked the team down, he found another choice.

He was watching ESPN one night and found a report on a game called Australian Rules Football which seemed to involve a lot of running and jumping plus plenty of physical contact, and further investigation confirmed this. He found a vid of a whole game on the internet and watched an hour of this game from down under, which left him very intrigued. At least as much running as soccer, plus tackling and physical interplay that was a bit like rugby or American Football, plus you had to be able to kick and catch the football. There was a lot to like!

Some searching on the internet found that there was a San Diego Australian Football team, and it seemed they were looking for new players for the next season. Before he knew it, he found himself training to play this strange game. The ball was obviously from the same family of balls from which the ball used in American Football had developed, but it was not as pointy. Some of the rules were pretty strange for someone who, while not a sports jock, had played some in High School as a wide receiver. So, he did at least understand American Football and had been a keen supporter of the college team. Still, the Aussies were sure into aerobic fitness, which was exactly what he had been trying to find!

He learned to kick using the Aussie drop punt style, not all that successfully, but he was accurate enough over short distances if he didn’t shank the kick badly off his boot. Using his magic to subtly nudge the ball into curving a little from either side gave him an impressive goal-kicking accuracy. He was careful about not using too much force when making the ball’s flight curve, but he became known as a very goal or miss completely sort of kicker. In the end, after some persuasion, the coach put him on the half-forward flank, which was a position where he could run up and down the field all day, which, after all, was his main aim in playing the foreign game. He also had the sneaky suspicion that he was given that position as much because they lacked any depth in their available players, and the coach didn’t want to lose a good prospect. Jason discovered this was true at their first real game as their reserves were just an old guy and two of the teenage sons of a couple of the older players. When he asked about the shortage of players, there were shrugs and sighs. Apparently, they had rarely fielded a full team in recent years. The only other regular player was a very overweight guy who always played full-forward when he turned up for a game. His work made it difficult for the fellow to get to training, and he missed a lot of games as well. He was told there weren’t that many people interested in playing.

The next two weeks, he spent working on spells. He had thought about the possibility of altering gravity and found that he could do it locally, after a fashion. Hmmm. He would have to think about the possible uses of that. The other, rather fancier spell he worked on was a lightning one. A thunderstorm had come over as he played around with the gravity modification spell, getting nowhere in particular. The storm had snuck up on him behind the ridge, and then he had been assailed by wind, rain, and rolling thunder almost without warning. He bolted for the truck as it boiled overhead, worried about getting hit by lightning as the big, dark clouds passed overhead. And then he thought about lightning and stepped back out of the truck and studied the storm.

He came up with a spell that would concentrate the air’s electrical charge and direct it at a particular spot. He ran it through his head a couple of times before he threw it, using a small, ragged tree thing down the track as the target. A lightning bolt blindingly sizzled into existence, creating a loud bang as the tree thing practically exploded in a shower of sparks, the flash momentarily turning his vision into a strange black and white abstract version of the scene. It took a moment, but once his eyes had adjusted back from the momentary blindness, he found all that was left was a smoldering hunk of the trunk and a few bits of burning branches or whatever spread around the immediate area. Woah!

And then there was another lightning strike, just over the rise. It was close enough he could feel the zing in the air. Then another lightning bolt struck the tree behind him. Shit! He jumped into the truck as another hit the bush he’d used as his target dummy. Hopefully, the rubber tires would shield the truck. Then the lightning strikes stopped just as suddenly as if he’d started them, and in ten minutes, the storm had rolled on, leaving a clear sky overhead and the gully awash in stormwater. Jason leaned back in the seat and relaxed his almost hyperventilation after the lightning attack, then he closed his eyes and promptly fell asleep. By the time he woke up, the mini torrent in the gully from the rainwater had largely run away, and things were getting back to normal.

It was clear he would need to practice how to handle lightning a good deal more! He supposed he would have to take the time to study storms academically and get a much better understanding of how they functioned. Then he could work out ways of using lightning strikes in a safer, more controlled manner! And definitely be careful about being out in the open when playing with an electrical storm! So, as he drove home, he added studying atmospheric electricity to his mental list of things to study further. It was getting to be a long list! But, at least there was plenty of information to be found on the internet! At that point, he suddenly realized what a major advantage he had over the sorcerers of Urasmian’s world. Hmmm. Something else to consider.