She’leth lets out an exasperated sigh and white smoke escapes her nose and mouth. There is no stopping the catastrophic event about to befall the planet. It will bring on an apocalypse.

She’leth gives the signal and the last of the dragons under her command leave the planet to return to the home world, where they will begin the process of seeking out a new planet to study. Like it or not, Grae’Bar and his subjects won’t be far behind. The Empress has ruled. We will have to wait and give whatever emerges a chance of evolving into meaningful intelligence before we return to this planet for any further study.

I grimace as I watch the rushing rapids of flood water run through the wreckage of the floor below. I cough as the acrid smoke from the burning ruins of our apartment building assaults my sinuses and lungs. I desperately clutch the collar of the small girl from across the hall with the last of my strength in my rapidly weakening fingers. I groan as I frantically hold onto her dangling body to prevent her from falling into the sweeping and surging torrents below. With the last of my strength, I heave her out of the hole and flinch as the beam above me cracks loudly and finally gives way to the fire that has mercilessly been burning its way through it. With little hope of surviving, I cover the small girl with my body the best I can. The burning beam buckles … and the building comes crashing down on top of us.

I jerk awake, drenched in sweat. I often dream of the day that changed my life. I sigh and shudder as the recurring nightmare slowly recedes from my memory. Leaving my heart still pounding in my chest. I try and settle the staccato beat into something more normal as the terror of the nightmare is slowly replaced with the reality of my bedroom. There’s no fire … no smoke choking my lungs. Only the darkness of my room and the shadows cast by the too-bright clock app on my phone. I wipe away the beads of sweat on my brow and give up on any attempt of going back to sleep. I look at the time and groan. It’s four a.m., and I know from experience that I may as well get up and face the day.

The dream is slower to fade today than normal. I shake my head and rub my bleary eyes and try to force the memory of that fateful day out of my mind ... without much success. It was two years ago but the memories are still very raw in my mind. I was barely sixteen and global climate change was just hitting its peak. That day, its effects struck our town with a vengeance. Torrential rains brought what was a year’s worth of rain a decade ago down in less than two hours. This caused flash floods deep enough to reach even the top of our hill. The water rushed into the building’s basement and quickly rose. The water swiftly reached the electrical panel and caused a short. The power went out with a huge arcing spark that quickly lit the surrounding structure on fire. Nowhere near up to code, it did not take long from that point to turn our aging apartment building into a rapidly spreading inferno.

My parents were out shopping at the time, and I was studying alone in our third-floor apartment when the disaster struck. The building actually shook from the torrents rocking its foundation at the same time the power went out. Minutes later, our floor was filling with black caustic smoke from all the burning plastics, furniture, and other toxic materials. There was no escape below because of the water. My only hope was to go up, but the fire was blocking that route. I was considering my options when I heard Sarah, our eleven-year-old neighbor, crying out for help. I covered my nose and mouth with my arm and stumbled out into the dense smoke. I hurried across the hall as quickly as I could and forced my way into their apartment to look for her. She was barely hanging on by her fingertips to the edge of a gaping hole in the floor—with water gushing past in the depths below. Her parents were nowhere to be seen. I later found out they had fallen through the hole and were swept away. I rushed over and was able to grab her hand and pull her up just as the burning ceiling above us started to cave in and more of the floor around us gave way to the floodwaters below.

I was ultimately successful in saving us both. I don’t remember our rescue from the building … only waking up in a hospital days later with no feeling in my legs and massive damage done to my back and pelvic area. The burning beam had crashed down onto my lower back and pelvis, crushing the lower portion of my body and several of my organs. A red-hot bolt was driven into my back, injecting a large inoperable molten stainless-steel mass around my spine and paralyzing me from the waist down. I also lost a kidney … and any hope of ever having children of my own.

I slap my face to pull myself away from the thoughts and finally push myself up on my strong arms and swing myself over into the wheelchair parked beside my bed. I get my useless legs situated and wheel myself over to my desk where I click on the lamp. I decide to get some studying done. I know from experience that sleeping is not an option after one of these nightmares, so I may as well prepare for my upcoming exam.

I find my book on European monarchies and open it up to the chapter on Mad King Ludwig. I still don’t get why I have to study European history for my degree in paleontology, but don’t dwell on it too much. There’s no more point in arguing required classes than there is trying to get out of taxes. I’m technically a genius and had already been accepted into college early before “the event.” I was lucky enough to still be admitted even though the accident had me out of commission for several months and classes had already started by the time I was declared fit enough to physically start courses. Now I’m in a special accelerated program and very close to graduating. I don’t do much other than studying, since I’m totally socially … awkward … and really don’t have anything better to do.

I finish the chapter and can’t help but wonder how someone like that could rule. The more I read about the monarchies of old, the more I despise them. It’s clear to me that birthright and strategic marriages are not the way to determine the fate of a country or its people.

I jerk around and look at the window as it rattles almost hard enough to shatter. I bare my teeth in a grimace at the howling winds pummeling it. I sigh. Monarchies are bad but democracy doesn’t always get it right, either. Global climate change is here to stay, in part because of choices made by our “democracy”, well republic, over the past decades. I’m not sure we’re any better than a monarchy … or a dictatorship, at this point. But at least our citizens have some say in our destiny.

Global climate change has been grossly accelerating. Not too long before I was born, it was still en vogue to “debate” its existence—at least in some dubious “scientific” circles. Over the course of my short life, arguments against it were obliterated … and its effects have multiplied exponentially. Differing administrations across the globe, ours included, have both helped or hindered efforts to mitigate it … but other countries, mostly third-world countries trying to survive, and China in its world-domination greed, ultimately pushed things over the edge and to the point of no return—leaving the planet screwed with no hope of turning it back. It became a manmade disaster without a manmade solution.

Then magic showed up.

No one knows how … or really why. Some say it’s merely a reoccurrence of ancient magic that long ago disappeared. Some say it’s something completely new. Whatever it is, it first manifested where the world’s worst offenders were causing the most damage – China, first and foremost. And in that case, it quickly became apparent that it was primarily a very dark magic. The oppressive Chinese regime seemed to foster and cultivate the darkness that this type of magic feeds on and fully embraced its power. It gave China an edge in learning to harness magic’s power ahead of the rest of the world and suddenly the rest of the world was trying to catch up with a new, very dangerous, magical world power.

When two Chinese dragon “emissaries” showed up in D.C., about six years ago, no one had a clue how to respond to or counter their magic. We’re still trying to figure it out. After our own struggles with some of our “leaders” attempting to sway us to the lure of dark magic, good ultimately prevailed and we denounced the darkness as a nation. At that point, magic started appearing here as well—Light magic. That’s not to say there isn’t still a dark faction in our country—there is. Just the same as there is a light faction in China.

Together with those from other enlightened parts of the world, individuals that have magic have slowly learned to engage it and have been able to hold off the dark advances of China, Russia, and the other black powers—those nations willing to make a deal with the evil magic that is completely devoid of light. But they’ve just barely been able to succeed. No one on our side seems to really know yet how to fully wield the white magic—nowhere near as much as the dark nations know how to wield their black magic. One major problem is that some people just seem to attract their magic and can suddenly access it, without warning or any sort of user’s manual. Overall, the scales are quickly tipping in the dark nations’ favor. It seems there may be more to these “old” powers having ancient knowledge about magic than was first thought to be true. The appearance of the dragon emissaries and their strong command of the magic, including being able to shift into human form, is just one indication of that.

Another loud bang at the window pulls me out of my reverie, and I sweep my long hair out of my eyes and behind my ears with a sigh. In the two years since “the event” that completely changed my life, not a whole lot has changed with me personally … at least not physically. Sarah and I both lost our parents that day, but we gained each other as brother and sister. “The system” let us stay together and we were placed with a single foster mother after I finally was released from the hospital. It was deemed in our mutual best interest, since our foster mother specializes in nurturing children with severe mental trauma. Sarah intensely bonded with me that day after I saved her, and it would have devastated her to break us apart. The system somehow understood that it would be cruel and that she would not survive being separated from me. I’m thankful, because I would have been hard-pressed to just let her go.

There is still no hope for my legs … or my reproductive abilities. I hadn’t yet entered any sort of noticeable puberty and any chance of that ever happening got crushed that day … literally. I’m old enough now that I could ask to be put on male hormones to compensate for my missing organs, but I haven’t pushed it, yet. To be honest, it’s just not that big a deal to me … what difference would it make other than maybe making my arms a little stronger? I’m still not going to be able to have sex—let alone children—and my arms are plenty strong enough as they are. I’m socially awkward—and that wouldn’t change with hormones. And I’m still totally confused ….

I shake my head in frustration and push my hair behind my ears again. I look very much the same as I did when the accident happened … just with much longer hair. I haven’t had it cut since that fateful day. I’m tiny, frail and almost waif-like, but I don’t care. I don’t really know what I would expect if I were to suddenly start “developing.” It’s not like I’ll ever have a chance at a real relationship, whether I take hormones, or not. Who would be interested in a pathetic wheelchair-bound cripple like me? But … if I could find someone, I honestly don’t know what I would want that relationship to even look like …. Would it be with a girl or with a boy? Both are as equally appealing prospects as they are completely foreign concepts to me.

I hiss as a sudden sharp increase in the normal background level of pain in my back makes me break out in a cold sweat. These pains have been increasing of late and are likely an indication of the foreign body shifting and pressing on nerves in a different manner. I may not be able to feel anything below my injury, but I can certainly feel everything above the inoperable molten metal “slug” in my back. The sudden pain and my gasp once again force me out of my reverie and I focus back on my book and my studies, in an attempt to ignore the pain.

I sigh as the material that originally got me mentally offtrack is brought back into focus. I mutter in frustration. “I still don’t like monarchies!”

“What was that, Alex?” Sarah comes into my room and is yawning wide. “Why are you awake again at this ungodly hour? Is your back hurting again—or was it another dream?”

“Both.” I shrug. “What are you doing up? Again?”

She stifles another yawn. “I don’t know. That weird feeling woke me up again. I still don’t know what it is, but it makes me feel … weird. I guess I must be dreaming, too … or something.”

Ever since she turned thirteen last month, she’s been having these … feelings. They seem to occur more often when I’m having a bout of episodes, too.

I pull her into my lap and into a hug. She lays her head on my shoulder and I stroke her hair. She is nearly as big as I am now. “We’re some pair, huh? But at least we have each other. We’ll figure it all out.”

She shudders and gently pushes back from my embrace but stays sitting in my lap. “Yes. I still can’t thank them enough that they let us stay together … well, and Momma Josie for taking us both in. But these … feelings … are getting stronger and it’s starting to freak me out!”

I nod. There’s not much more I can do. “I know, Sis. Could it just be puberty ramping up?” She is certainly showing her development—without question.

She screws up her face and shakes her head. “I don’t think that’s it. Momma J says this isn’t something that sounds like any ‘symptom’ of puberty that she’s aware of. It’s almost like I’m … vibrating … or tingling …. It’s hard to describe.”

I move wrong and hiss as a sharp pain shoots up my back and into my arms.

Sarah gives me a concerned look and reaches behind me to gently rub my back and help release the tension in my cramped muscles. Unfortunately, she touches the area where the slug is located, and another sharp zap-like jolt elicits another gasp from me. She looks terrified as she jerks her hands back.

I shake my head. “It’s okay, Sis. I know you didn’t mean ….”

“No!” She passionately interrupts me. “You don’t understand. I felt that, too! That … that … zap … came from me. What’s happening to me, Alex?”

I’m not sure what to say. She has to be mistaken. Except, I can feel the metal in my back … it’s like it’s burning. Like it just came out of the building fire and is radiating heat into my back muscles. It doesn’t hurt, per se. But it feels … unsettling. I clear my throat and try and pull my thoughts together. “What do you mean ‘it came from you’?”

She’s as pale as a ghost and perplexedly staring at her hands as she whispers her response. “I … I … I mean I felt myself sort of zap you and like … static electricity … or something flow from my hands into you.”

I focus on the feeling in my back and realize that the “heat” is actually making it feel better. I take a slow, deep-but-shaky breath. “I don’t know what it was, Sis. But … my back actually feels a little better. It was hurting badly before … now it’s … less.”

She gives me a terrified look. “I … I … I’m glad it helped. But what if whatever it was would have hurt you? I didn’t even mean to do it … so … how could I have controlled it? What if it happens again and I can’t … and I do hurt you … or someone else?”

I start to grab her hands and pull her into a hug, but she jumps out of my lap and pulls her arms out of my reach.

“No! don’t touch me! I … I … I don’t know what I might do to you!” She runs out of my room, tears streaming down her face.

Her door slams behind her as she storms into her room and I hear the lock click into place.

I sigh. I can’t blame her for freaking out. I would be freaked out, too. Hell! I am freaked out!

An hour later, Sis is calmed down enough that Momma J and I are able to coax her out of her room. She’s terrified to touch me, but I persuade her to braid my waist-length, jet-black hair … something that has always soothed her nerves before. It’s also usually very calming to me.

Momma J gives her an appraising look and sighs. “First off, Sarah. I want you to know that I totally believe you when you say that something is happening with you … other than puberty.” She gives her a lop-sided grin. “The thing is that I have a suspicion … one that I cannot prove on my own. So, I don’t want you to freak out, okay?”

We both eye her suspiciously, but Sis asks first. “What do you mean, Momma?”

She takes a deep breath and stares off into space. Finally, she looks back at us and shrugs. “I think you may be emitting magic.”

I wince and close my eyes. The truth is that I had come to the same conclusion, myself. I open my eyes and worriedly glance over at Sis.

She has a shocked look on her face … and is extremely pale. “Why do you think that, Momma? I mean what do you … or any of us … know about magic?” Her shocked look is rapidly turning to terror.

Momma J shakes her head. “You’re right, Hon. None of us really understand what’s going on. That doesn’t mean it’s not going on. Many scholars think it’s a reappearance of magic … something ancient. Your mother’s people … your people … certainly believe in it. Blackfoot legends are steeped in it.” She nods at me. “Alex’s Japanese ancestors also believe in it. If your mother—or Alex’s father—were here, I think there would be little debate with them on the matter. Maybe your Native American blood is allowing magic to bubble up in you? I’ve heard some rumors ….”

I grunt and give her a begrudging nod.

Sarah looks at her in disbelief. “My Blackfoot blood? Really? So … I should expect Natosi to come knocking on my door tonight? Maybe Kamorkis? Why not have the Sun God and the Moon Goddess come to celebrate my new-found magic?”

Momma J actually giggles. “Okay, okay. A little less skepticism … or is that cynicism? Certainly, a lot less scorn and sarcasm! I’m serious! We don’t know where all of this emerging magic is coming from and some of my more scholarly friends are hypothesizing that it is manifesting mostly in those with ties to its ancient roots.”

I laugh. “As long as Ryujin, the Japanese Dragon King, doesn’t come to visit me, I’m good!” I look at Sis and get serious. “All kidding aside, Sis. I think Momma J may be onto something.” I look at Momma J “Any idea how to research this hypothesis?”

To my surprise, Momma shrugs. “I … have no idea, to be honest. But I have friends … well people that know people … that do.”

Sis finishes up with my long braid and pats me on the shoulder.

I gasp as another zap jolts down my spine and the heat in my back once again intensifies. “I think you may need to hurry up and contact them then, Momma J.”