I stared in shock and fear at the eight people who had literally just fallen from the sky. All of them were wearing featureless white masks, exactly as the attackers at the mythic gathering had worn. And even through the masks, I could recognize several of the same attackers. I recognized Rebecca and two people who I thought might be Marcus and Tyler, though it was hard to tell from this distance. However, there was no way I could miss Gregor.

Gregor stood at the front with a large wooden staff in hand. From this distance, I could still see some sort of crystal embedded in the head. I knew that this was no mere decoration but actually a form of reusable token, one that could contain multiple spells. At one time, most sorcerers used staffs to hold their spells in this fashion, at least until the Touched decided to hide from normals and the staffs became too noticeable. However, Gregor seemed big on Touched pride so it made sense that he’d use something that was once a huge symbol of a sorcerers power.

“What the hell is going on?” Eve demanded.

“Those are the guys who kidnapped me,” I exclaimed, shaking a little as I stared at them.

Todd stared at me, his expression turning angry. “Those guys?”

“Marcus,” Monica blurted out, staring at her brother among the arrivals.

“Gregor,” Amylia spat out bitterly. “After we escaped from him, I had the protective barriers around the school strengthened in case he tried anything here. We always expected any hostile intruders to either come through the gate hub or the ocean. Of course, Gregor would come from the sky…where our barriers are weakest.”

The glowing green ball falling out of the sky and crashing into the school grounds had drawn a lot of attention and I suddenly realized that a lot of students were running towards the newcomers to see what was going on. Even some of the teachers were starting to arrive to check it out.

“No,” Amylia gasped with a look of realization. Then she shouted, “RUN!”

Then, as if this was exactly what Gregor had been waiting for, he held his staff up and there was a sudden spark of green light that shot from it. The spark hit Mrs. Khuto and then exploded outward in a wave of green light. A moment later, Mrs. Khuto collapsed to the ground, as did everyone within fifty feet of her in every direction, including Master Tonkas. Before Mrs. Khuto had even finished hitting the ground, the spark seemed to shoot from her and fly across the courtyard, hitting someone else and causing them and everyone near them to collapse as well before the process repeated again.

“What the hell is going on?” Teressa screamed with a look of terror.

“Stay close,” Amylia ordered us, holding up a crystal and exclaiming, “Invoke.” A large bubble appeared around our group, and when the green spark came towards us, it hit the bubble and was stopped.

“What is that?” Kaellie demanded.

“A chain spell,” I said in realization. “A very powerful one…”

“Correct,” Amylia responded grimly.

Teressa glared at me as though this was all my fault and demanded, “Who are these people…”

“My ex-husband,” Amylia answered grimly while Monica simultaneously responded, “My brother.”

“What?” Eve, Todd, and Kaellie all blurted out at once.

At this point, there was no longer anyone standing in sight except for us and Gregor’s people. The green spark had ceased as well, which was fortunate as the bubble surrounding us collapsed and faded away. A moment later, Gregor’s people seemed to notice us and half the group started coming in our direction.

Amylia glared at them then went to the nearest collapsed person, bending over and checking for a pulse. “Alive,” she stated grimly. “Asleep.”

“They’re coming towards us,” Todd pointed out unnecessarily while I drew a pair of my stone tokens, one for each hand. Everyone but Todd and Monica had similarly armed themselves.

“This is too large an attack for them to be just after you and I,” Amylia told me with a dark look. “This is something else.”

“So what do we do?” Kaellie asked nervously.

“We fight,” Eve responded firmly.

“No,” Amylia said, quickly looking around. “Only if you must. I want you to run and try finding other teachers and students who may have escaped their initial opening.” Then she looked to me. “Erin, I sincerely doubt that you and I are their primary targets, but I am certain they will take the opportunity to come after us. Stay close to me and be ready.”

“I’ll stay too,” Todd said firmly, looking as though he wanted to protect me. It was the sweetest thing ever…even if rather stupid. After all, I was a sorceress with a small arsenal of spells, and all he had was his talent…which was not well suited to fighting.

“I can’t see a damn thing in this stupid mask,“ one of the masked intruders exclaimed while another one of them nodded agreement. Then as they got close enough to be a threat, he exclaimed, “I’m better off without…” He tossed his mask aside, and a moment later, the other three followed his lead. Of the three, Rebecca and Tyler were the only two I recognized

“You,” Tyler blurted out when he saw me. He stared at me with an expression that seemed to be mixed fear and hatred. “What did you to do me you monster?”

“RUN,” Amylia screamed to the group before holding out a crystal and exclaiming, “Invoke.”

Amylia released a large wave of water which appeared from nowhere and hit all four of the intruders, sending them all flying back hard. Everyone besides Todd and myself used the opportunity to run. I immediately activated one of my own tokens, a chain spell that I’d been planning to use for my next duel. This one was much simpler than the chain spell I’d used against Teressa, just having three shield spells tied back to back so as soon as one of them was used up, it would trigger the next.

The four intruders recovered enough to activate their own tokens, sending a blast of blue flame right at me and an explosion of metal spikes at Amylia. The blue flame hit me and vanished while my spell triggered and activated a replacement shield. Amylia used a token to create a glowing disk of light in front of her, blocking the spikes and protecting both her and Todd.

“I’m gonna kill you for what you did to Tyler,” Rebecca yelled at me furiously. “You animal.”

“Engage,” I called out, sending out my itching spell which Rebecca somehow blocked, perhaps with a spell similar to my shield.

“We can’t stand and fight,” Amylia stated grimly. “Not like this…” Then she activated another token and suddenly a thick mist began to form and spread. “Now run…”

I did as Amylia said and began to run through the fog, only realizing a moment later that I’d lost track of her and Todd. I looked around, not seeing them or the invaders, though I did hear some cursing in the distance and noticed a few vague flashes of light. Probably spells. I wanted to call out but bit my tongue, afraid of giving myself away.

Then I tripped over something and fell flat on my face. I quickly scrambled back to my feet, realizing that I’d just tripped over another student. He looked vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place him.

“Sorry about that,” I whispered, though he didn’t seem to have noticed anything. At least he wouldn’t be able to blame me for the bruise he’d undoubtedly have once he woke up.

Then I froze, suddenly hearing two voices talking a short distance away. I felt a cold chill go up my spine as I recognized one of them as Gregor’s and the other as Marcus.

“I can’t see a thing,” Marcus exclaimed in obvious annoyance. “How can I find where they’re hiding my sister if I can’t even see?”

“Patience,” Gregor responded, sounding calm and in control. “It will fade soon. Trust me, Amylia will pay for kidnapping your sister. But first, we have to focus on the business at hand. We can’t let ourselves get distracted by personal business and forget the mission.”

“Of course not,” Marcus agreed, sounding almost apologetic. “I will rescue Monica…but it has waited this long so I can be patient a little longer. Our mission comes first.”

“Once we have full control of the school,” Gregor explained, “we can begin educating and training the next generation of soldiers. Many of the Touched have grown soft while in hiding, becoming weak and cowardly. We have to make our kind strong again.”

“And having the students in our care will ensure they don’t act against us,” Marcus responded, sounding tense. “I don’t like this…but it is necessary to save our people.”

“Once our position is strengthened,” Gregor told him, his voice sounding hard. “We will continue locating more mythics and recovering those of my tainted bloodline. They are still the key to providing our most powerful weapon.” There was a long pause before he added almost thoughtfully, “Once our kind is united and strong, we can cease hiding and take our place on the world stage. It may yet take decades…perhaps even another century, but once we are ready we can create our own homeland and become our own nation. The Touched will have to hide no more but will finally be a respected power.”

I gulped, seeing what Gregor was really after. He wanted to brainwash all the students in the Academy to thinking the way he wanted, turning us into soldiers while simultaneously using us as hostages to keep the rest of the Touched off his back.

“Frell,” I muttered, feeling a little shaken by what I’d overheard.

What surprised me most was that Gregor’s ultimate goal didn’t really sound too bad. He didn’t seem to be after world conquest, just getting respect for the Touched. I could certainly understand that. Even the idea of creating a country of our own where the Touched could be open about who we really were sounded kind of nice. In theory. I had to remind myself that the land for this mythical country would have to come from somewhere, and I doubted that the current inhabitants would just give it up willingly. And of course, there was also the matter of the Were, who I assumed didn’t have a place in Gregor’s vision.

“Oh frell,” I muttered again. Then I tried to think of what I should do. Absolutely nothing came to mind. “What would the Doctor do?”

When I considered the show Doctor Who and just what the lead character would do in a situation like this, the answer was obvious. He’d come up with some brilliant but unconventional plan that would completely outwit and defeat the villains without having to even throw a single punch. Somehow, I didn’t see that working for me. Captain Kirk? He’d fire photon torpedoes and then chase after the lady of the week. Jayne Cobb from Firefly? He’d shoot the hell out of everything and then throw in a few grenades just to make sure…unless the bad guys offered him more money.

I shook my head in exasperation and muttered, “I have got to get some female role-models…”

For a moment, I considered jumping up and throwing every spell I had in the direction of Gregor and Marcus, but then I realized that the fog was quickly fading away and I could now see them. They’d been walking further away from me while I’d been sitting there thinking, but if they looked in my direction at all, they’d be able to see me. But as I looked around for cover, I saw Amylia a short distance away and immediately started towards her instead.

“Where’s Todd?” I asked her immediately, looking around but not seeing any sign of him.

“I think he went away from the campus,” Amylia responded. “That’s for the best. They’re less likely to find him so it will be safer for him.”

I nodded at that, then gestured to where I’d seen Gregor and Marcus heading. “I saw Gregor over there…”

Amylia’s expression turned even harder, if that was possible. “Don’t go near him,” she ordered me, her expression turning to one of worry. “Stay away from him if at all possible. I already lost one child to him and couldn’t bear to lose another.”

“What about,” I started, feeling a little uncertain with the concerned way that Amylia was looking at me. “What about your secret weapon?”

Amylia gave me a confused look for just a moment before responding, “The spell we cast isn’t a weapon… It was never meant to harm Gregor…only to protect my descendants if he ever tried that again. Using it now would be worse than useless. It would defeat the entire purpose.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling disappointed. I’d thought the entire point of all that work was to take out Gregor if he tried anything like this.

“Now let’s find a safe place to take cover and plan,” Amylia told me grimy. Her eyes narrowed dangerously and she added, “There is no way I am going to allow Gregor and these fools to harm any more children. NONE.”