Chapter 2: The Mighty Wizard?
What happened to Bill: About a 10 Minute Read
“Bill, I have something to ask you?” Jax leaned forward, intent on grabbing Bill’s shirt and pulling him in, but all he could grasp was air. His hand went through Bill’s translucent body and came out empty.
An amused chuckle sounded from all over the room. “Wizard, remember? I can convert matter to energy and so many other things faster than you can think. Spells.”
“Spells?”
Bill disappeared and reappeared at the end of the bed. “Everything I do, if you don’t and or can’t understand it, is a spell.” An orange/yellow flame appeared on Bill’s flat palm. The flame danced up and down to an unheard beat.
“Watch,” Bill said.
As if fueled by Bill’s palm, the flame straightened the base white, turning red/orange.
The heat began to warm Jax’s skin, and he pulled his feet back. The heat radiated from what looked like a flare now.
Without any change in Bill’s demeanor, the blaze grew the tip of the now blue flame scorching the ceiling.
Throwing the smoldering sheets off him, Jax jumped out of bed and pressed his naked back against the wall. The heat was stifling, making it hard to breathe.
The flame grew in width and flowered on the flat surface above in a 360-degree pattern of shimmering intensity. As the flame rose, it became louder and louder, from the blaring noise of a blow torch to the loud booming of a jet engine. Black smoke billowed up from the end of the bed, rolling across the ceiling.
The black smoke made it impossible to breathe each short breath smoke tried to get into his lungs. His skin was red and burning. Jax lunged forward and grabbed the mattress. He didn’t care if it was smoldering the smoke adding to the already choking conditions. The protection the bed offered was his only thought. His hands blistered, but he held on, placing it between him and the flame while trying not to breathe the heat and smoke. Wedged between the floor and wall, he pulled the mattress over himself. Bill passed his free hand back and forth through the flame, a maniacal grin on his face.
“Enough!” Jax yelled.
“Ah, yes.” A look of genuine concern spread across Bill’s face. “Sometimes I get a little carried away.”
Bill snapped his fingers, and the room disappeared.
A pool lounger appeared under Jax. He bolted up to a sitting position. They were in another place with an Olympic-sized pool at its center, diving boards, several loungers, and a tiki bar. A sign on the thatch roof said, Bill’s Bar in sloppy red paint.
“Wizards like their spells.” Bill shrugged. “It gets away from me sometimes.”
Jax felt better, dressed in black swim trunks, a red t-shirt, and sandals. His skin was no longer red and sensitive, and his hair was now long, shoulder-length. Again, his emotions weren’t going wild. The afterimage of the flame faded after a moment, but the memory of it was there, and it was intense. So many questions. He started with this one.
“Why don’t I feel anything? With every revelation, every illusion or reality,” Jax spread his hands out in confusion. “I don’t know. I should be feeling anger and fear, which should be extreme. But at each new thing, my pulse barely rises.”
“That should be obvious.”
“Let’s say it’s not. Fill me in.”
“Fine.” A mild look of annoyance crossed his features. “When I rescued you from that sinkhole, I knew you would have difficulty acclimating to your new life when you woke, so I installed a few neural blockers to help you get through this. Don’t worry. They’ll dissolve in a few hours after. You will be your same old monkey self.”
Relieved, Jax took a closer look at Bill. “When you say rescued, what you mean is after I fell into that sinkhole you initiated, you kidnapped me and brought me here against my will.”
“You could interpret it that way.” Bill stepped behind the bar and poured two beers, offering one to Jax.
Jax took it and sat at the bar. It was wait-and-see time now; he could do nothing to help himself out of this, but when an opportunity presented itself, he’d be ready.
“Once I determined you were the individual I have been searching for, it was always a forgone conclusion you would join me.”
He took a sip. It was a bitter IPA, just like he liked it. Jax put the beer down and watched condensation drop down the bottle to the coaster it rested on.
“What if I don’t want to help you? What if I decide I’ll do everything in my power not to help you?”
“You could. I can’t stop you. Believe it or not, you can make your own decisions, and I wouldn’t try to stop you. I’d be disappointed, but I would find another. There’s always another. I did say one in a million, after all, not one in a billion.”
They both drank in silence.
“I know all there is to know about you, Jax. If I hadn’t installed those neural blockers, sure, you’d be angry, but you would also be full of wonder and curiosity. This isn’t the kind of exploration you imagined you’d be doing when you came here.” Bill spread his arms out. “All of this is so much more than anything you could have imagined.”
Over the pool, a three-dimensional star map of the Milky Way Galaxy appeared.
“This is what you know. Around, outside, the Milky Way is a universe that stretches across infinite space. What I’m offering you is the opportunity to explore not just this sad little universe but the chance to visit and explore other worlds and universes, realms beyond your ability to understand. I will teach you, as will others. We will force you to learn things you cannot grasp at the moment. You will have the freedom to go anywhere in all the realms. You will meet other humans, and you’ll meet what you consider aliens. Some will become lifelong lost friends, and others will become your greatest enemies. You’ll visit realms where technology rules, not the pathetic machines you call tech, but true tech that would inspire a demigod or two. There will be worlds where magic rules and technology is a dirty word. I offer you a chance to do more, see more, and be more than your wildest dreams ever prepared you for.”
“And to see and be all you promise, all I have to do is help you… with what?
“There’s always a price when all the gold in the kingdom is offered.”
“Until I find out its fool’s gold.” Jax sought out any tell, any emotional giveaway Bill might be lying. There were none. That didn’t mean anything, but the prize was worth it. He had nothing back home. He was divorced, had no kids, no real close friends and no one would miss him.
“Funny.”
“Sounds to me that it might be hazardous to one’s health.” As soon as Jax said it, he knew what his opinion of that was. One didn’t become a test pilot or an astronaut if one lived your life risk-averse to what the world presented. You grabbed it by the balls and didn’t let go. He chuckled on the inside, as long as it wasn’t a suicide mission. Or if it was, it had better be an outstanding suicide mission.
“What I offer is true. It’s an offer with a price, but you’ll not regret it.” Bill lifted his beer and sipped the cold liquid, his eyes never wavering from Jax’s. “It’s a question of life and death. Do you want to see what the universe is concealing beyond this puny star system, or do you want to go back and live your boring life on Earth full of questions unanswered?
“Maybe you should tell me about this adventure of yours.”
With a big smile, Bill pulled out two more beers. “It’s a question of exile, and how do I get back in the good graces of my fellow wizards.”
“Long story short, there are different tiers of power in the known realms.” Bill raised a finger. “Let me give you a little perspective. A realm can be a single planet or land. That land can be as large as a planet or as big as your solar system. As far as I know, there is no limit to how big a realm can be. Nor does anyone know where a realm comes from in broad terms. You believe a big bang created your universe. I can’t say for sure one way or another, but I suspect this big bang, if that is what it was, was the byproduct of someone or something magic went wrong or right.” He shrugged.
“So these other Realms could be other dimensions?” Jax said, trying to inject something related to science into the subject. “At least the Realms outside this universe?”
“That’s a possibility. I don’t know. The point is that there are more powerful beings than I can envision. The more powerful they are, the less I understand them, but we must accept they are out there.”
“That must be a bit of a strain on your ego?” The more Jax listened, the more confident he felt Bill needed him more than he let on. So, a little dig at Bill, and he’d see how far he could go before Bill reacted. If he were a friend or at least friendly, Bill wouldn’t throw a tantrum or reciprocate negatively.
“You needn’t worry about my ego. It’s as broad as the heavens but tempered with a healthy dose of my reality.” With a broad smile on his face, Bill said. “No. If there is a concern, it’s you I’m worried about. At any second, I expect you to sit down on the floor, wrap your arms around your legs, and start crying hysterically or jumping into the lagoon behind you and drowning yourself.”
Sure enough, behind Jax, the swimming pool had turned into a lagoon with palm trees growing in a semi-circle around the far side and fish swimming just below the surface.
“No worries here.” Jax nodded. “I’m made of pretty sturdy stuff.”
"Within these realms are distinct tiers. Within these realms are distinct tiers. Divided by the potential that the most influential inhabitants of these tiers can attain. This is what makes a tier. Power is the differentiator of the tiers. Divided by the potential that the most influential inhabitants of these tiers can attain. This is what makes a tier. Power is the differentiator of the tiers. Again, I will show my ignorance. I don't know how many tiers there are. Before my fall, I was a proud and honorable wizard of the tier-four worlds."
"Okay, so far, I'm tracking. Tiers and Realms." Jax took a swig of his beer and asked for another. He was going to need it. This was getting weird.
"As you've already guessed, the pitiful little Realm around you is a tier one. You have no insight or the ability to think outside your world and zero power to enhance yourselves."
"Thanks. That's a confidence booster. "
"No problem,” Bill smirked. “Not to worry, in another 500 years, your people might pull themselves out of the mud and develop the technology to become a tier two class realm. And that is where we will start. You must familiarize yourself with tier two and tier three realms."
"Why's that?" But he could guess where he would be going at some point.
"To get me to my rightful place and gain an audience with the Consul of Wizards, we must travel through the second and third tiers."
"And how do we get to these realms? And when you say we, you mean me.”
"Ah." Bill grinned. "That's where you come in."
"The special breeding program," Bill said sourly.
"Yes, exactly." With a flourish, Bill swept his beer up and finished it.
"Happy days."
“To move from realm to realm, you must travel by starship or through a portal. By starship, you are limited to only the Realms in this universe thus, you are always limited in the potential of what you’ll learn and become. Starship travel is regulated by the amount of fuel you can carry and by the inhabitants of the places you visit. The major constraint besides the limited Realms one can experience is the time traveling from port to port. This could be months, sometimes years. Portals have no fuel requirement, and travel time is instantaneous. Sometimes, there is only one portal in a Realm, sometimes more, many more. They are all heavily monitored, supervised, and protected by the inhabitants. Anyone using a portal is taxed, sometimes heavily; of course, everyone who comes through it is scrutinized to ensure they are not a criminal or on a watch list.”
“I presume this is why you are here and haven’t already traveled through one of these portals? And, what did you do?”
He pointed his finger to the ceiling. “I am a proud and ignoble traitor to all I once loved and dedicated myself to protect. Or so the Consul of Wizards judged me.”
From the get-go, Jax hadn’t been very optimistic about Bill. Call it his pessimistic attitude. No extraterrestrial, wizard, or politician kidnaps a man, fills him with promises, and grants him a genetic gift to do what? Help a buddy out? Bill’s cavalier attitude about being a traitor made Jax uneasy. It sounded like Jax would be at the pointy end of the spear for whatever Bill needed.
“And you can’t go through these portals because?”
“I was banished here and was stripped of nearly all my powers. I now only process what powers a child might have.”
“Swell, and I’m here because?”
Bill lit up. “You’re here because you can create your own portal and travel anywhere.”
"Hmm." Jax shook his head. "I don't even know what a portal is. Not really. But, I'll be able to conjure one up, and what, walk on through like it's nothing?"
"Not like nothing. It will take a lot of training, but once you are ready, you will detect the essence of any world only by knowing something about the place you are going to."
It seemed fantastic how could anyone travel in this way? But, a little genetic manipulation, and bam!
"Wait a minute, can others make their own portals?"
Thank You for Reading!
Bill the Techno-Wizard is a serial story. It is ongoing even as you read. The table of contents, with links to existing portions of the story, can be found at the link below.
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