Chapter Four
Rayolin sped down the ID-2 at ninety
miles an hour, listening to his music in silence. Everyone else in the car had
fallen asleep almost an hour ago. His thoughts wandered until he started
thinking about the Martyrist at the gas station that had tried to kill him. I wonder if he had a family. Rayolin
thought. He shook his head and dismissed any thoughts about the man’s humanity.
He had been on the run from the church for ten years before finally settling in
Valhark. He’d changed his name and identity and waited to move until he was
sure that the Martyrists thought he was dead.
And they had. He had remained safe
for almost three years, convincing Asenath and Liriel to join him in hiding.
Handellen was the only one the church knew was still alive, and it had cost
him. Now he was on the run again, and he had reason to believe that the
Martyrists knew he was alive. He had been seen in Vorshig, and a few of the
attackers might have recognized him.
He began to change lanes, but the
sound of a car horn rang out and he saw that there had been a car sitting in
his blind spot. He sped up and changed lanes without any more trouble. ID-2
went directly from Kittim to Vorshig, so he didn’t have to change roadways at
all. Rayolin forced himself to stay awake. There was still another hour and a
half of driving to do before they got to the city, and it wouldn’t help if
Rayolin fell asleep at the wheel. After ten more minutes Itham woke up and
groaned as he rubbed his eyes.
“How long have I been asleep?” He
asked tiredly.
“About an hour ago,” Rayolin said.
“There’s another hour and a half until we reach Kittim.” Itham nodded and
leaned back again, falling asleep quickly. Rayolin continued driving, thinking
again about the seven years he had spent on the run. Caladon had been quick to send
men after him after he had left the church, planning to tell a large group of
people about Caladon’s mobilization plans. Even after Caladon died, his
successor had still sent people to bring them in. Nothing would be more
embarrassing for the church than an exposed plan to attack the Creed.
Suddenly the car in front of
Rayolin slowed down. Rayolin hit the brakes hard, stopping just in time. It
looked like there had been an accident ahead, and traffic had slowed
dramatically. Rayolin tapped the wheel impatiently, waiting for the cars ahead
of him to move. They sat there for five minutes before the car in front of him
started moving at a snail’s pace. Rayolin yelled in exasperation and changed
lanes, ignoring the car he had butted in front of. He accelerated quickly,
changing lanes again so he could go faster. Finally he got through the slow
traffic and started going the speed he had gone before. The car in front of him
was going slower than the speed limit, so Rayolin put on his signal to change
lanes again.
As he checked his mirror to make
sure he was clear, he noticed that the car right behind him was the same car he
had changed lanes in front of a few minutes ago. Suspicious, he changed lanes.
The car behind him did as well. Rayolin smiled. At least they’re obvious about following me, Rayolin thought. He
sped up until he was going a hundred and six miles per hour and changed lanes
several times. He slowed back down and noticed that the car was still following
him. Rayolin swore and started weaving between cars, careful to avoid speeding
too much so that he wouldn’t get pulled over.
The car followed him the entire
way, pulling next to him in the opposite lane. Rayolin noticed that there was
another traffic jam ahead, so he sped up. He missed the congestion barely, and
the car that had been following him didn’t make it at all. He shouted in relief
as he continued down the interdistrict.
They were almost at Kittim when
Itham woke up again.
“Twenty more minutes, and we’re
there.” Rayolin told him before he could say anything. Itham nodded and yawned,
but did not go back to sleep this time.
He heard a gunning car engine
behind him, and a car pulled next to him, matching Rayolin’s speed. Rayolin
sped up before another car pulled into the other lane next to him, both cars
rolling down their windows and shooting. The bullets hit the windows, but they
were bulletproof. Rayolin swore again as he felt a pull on the ring on his
finger. The ring had a quartz gemstone in the center, a counterstone against
people trying to Arcanically attack him with any form of Procurial magic.
He figured that since they were
chasing him, they were probably going to try to take his will so he would pull
to the side and stop. They probably also had a couple of Houndsmen in their,
men with Arcanically enhanced smell who could follow a trail across long
distances. He reached out with his own Arcanic power and tried to wear down
several things, including the tires. But the church had outfitted the car with
counterstones, so Rayolin could not break down any part of the car.
Itham sat wide-eyed in the
backseat, terrified that the two cars would kill them. Asenath had woken up as
soon as the gunfire had started, and was loading her own weapon now. Liriel was
the only one still asleep.
“Rayolin, there aren’t any counterstones
on this road!” Asenath shouted. He looked at the road and saw that she was
right. He concentrated, mentally breaking the world down into the tiny building
blocks he envisioned whenever he destroyed something Arcanically. He tore up as
much of the road as he could and sighed as one of the cars hit the hole at
ninety miles an hour. He continued driving, and winced as he heard several cars
behind him crash as a result of what he had done. Can’t do that anymore, he thought.
Instead he concentrated on the
gasoline burning in the engine of his car while Asenath held the wheel. He
broke down the gas, making it react more violently. He was pushed back in his
seat as the car accelerated to a speed faster than most vehicles could go. He
heard horns honk as he passed them, knowing that he would be reported to the
police. He would have to worry about that after he got to Kittim.
He continued increasing the
combustion reaction to keep the car at its current speed. As the gasoline
reserves dwindled, he took a break to take the wheel and let Asenath build up
more. It wouldn’t be the same as actual gas, but it would work well enough to
get them where they needed to go. They had lost the car several miles back, but
Rayolin wasn’t going to take any chances. He didn’t want them catching up
again.
His grip on the steering wheel
relaxed as they entered the city of Kittim.
He turned onto an old cobblestone street and pulled up to the Hall of Miracles.
He got out of the car and looked around. There were ten cars parked right in
front of the Hall and on the adjacent street. There was a middle-aged man
talking to several policemen near the front door, and an ambulance was driving
away.
“What happened here?” Itham asked.
“Don’t know. Probably something to
do with the Martyrists.” He walked over to the man who was talking and
addressed the policemen.
“What happened?” He said.
“There’s been an attack at this
building. Several injured, but none killed thankfully.”
“Who was responsible?”
“Several Heriamite men without any
form of I.D. They haven’t been identified yet.” He said.
“Are they related in any way?”
“Ah, there you are Rayolin.” Said
another man who had just come out of the Hall.
And just for kicks and giggles, I'll include a brief outline of the chapter that I wrote a while back.
The chapter starts from Rayolin’s
point of view. He is the only person awake in the car. He drives for several
minutes before noticing that a car is following him. He grows suspicious, and
tries to lose it in the interdistrict. He finally loses the car, but two more
cars start shooting at him. An Arcanist in one of the cars tries to take away
Rayolin’s will, but he has a countershield ring on, so their attempts to
control him fail. He tries to knock one of the cars out of the chase by wearing
down the tires, but their tires have countershields on as well. So instead he
wears down the road, causing the car to hit a newly formed pothole and crash at
freeway speeds. The culture is heavily influenced by the competition between
magic and nonmagic, so theoretically the road should be implemented with
gemstones, but this particular road has not because the cost of setting gems in
every road in the kingdom is monumentally expensive. Rayolin outdistances the
other car by using his power to cause the reactions in the car’s engines to
happen faster, thus enabling the car to speed up for a short time. At this
point he wakes up Asenath, who replenishes the depleted gasoline by building a
replacement that isn’t as effective as actual gasoline but gets the job done
until they can get more gas. They finally get to Kittim, and stop at the
Miracle center (change name to something cooler) that is there (miracle center
is kittim equivalent for hall of miracles.) the chapter ends when they find out
that the miracle center in Kittim has been attacked as well, but almost
everyone survived the attack. The city had received warning after Vorshig and
prepared for a possible attack. Despite tight security the attack still got
through but the assailants were quickly captured after a brief firefight.
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