Paranoid Mage by InadvisablyCompelled

Author:InadvisablyCompelled [InadvisablyCompelled]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Urban Fantasy, Paranoid Mage, Magical Realism, Fantasy
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12 – Preparation

Callum ate takeout while he browsed the catalogues of the nearest used motorcycle places as well as the online classifieds. The classifieds were actually his preference for purchase, but too many of them were suspect, not working, or actually terrible bikes. In fact, most bikes were what he considered terrible bikes, at least for his purposes. He needed something fast, reliable, light, and not flashy.

It took him a lot longer than he liked to settle on an option, and even then he had to make another hours-long trip to get another piece of gold exchanged, but eventually he had his auxiliary transportation. Since he already had the books and materials for when he was supposed to meet Gayle, he could spend the time doing reconnaissance. And practicing his gravitykinesis.

Simply knowing that his ability to manipulate vis was not as good as he had initially thought helped him focus on what improvements he still had to make, but grappling with the more ephemeral filler between threads was not easy. It helped to have something to compare himself, but at the same time, he was clearly not very good at making crisp and clean vis constructs like Gayle. It was still an intensely nauseating and exhausting experience to try and lift himself, so self-flight was off the table for a while.

Given that he was already putting in long hours, he didn’t let a little thing like being tired get him down. He drove his motorcycle toward the first target, using his teleport when he could. While it wasn’t nearly as fast as it might have been if he had a longer range or could do it more often, he probably doubled his overall speed.

He’d done some math on practicing his self teleport, and he could go tremendously quickly if he was willing to spend all his vis. Even if he had an effective range of five hundred yards, it didn’t take but a second for him to reorient and teleport again, so he could go a full mile in about four seconds. Not that he could keep that up for long, so it was impractical for cross-country trips.

When he arrived at the first, nearest town that had vampire problems, he circled far around the target address. While Chester had given him contact information for the local Alphas – and it had not escaped Callum’s attention that the Alphas all lived in or near the vampire locations – he considered it a trap. The less he was known, the less likely it was someone could give him away.

It was one of the ones without a mage, but apparently that didn’t mean it was without magical protections. There was a ward up, but it was static, probably powered by mana in some way. It wouldn’t be too hard for Callum to push past and he could probably wreck the source fairly easily. Though upon further thought, it was better if he didn’t.

It seemed weird to him that the wards were so permeable, but his best guess was that they were not meant to keep mages out.

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