Rough Draft - New Urban Fantasy

Below is the rough draft of the first chapter of my current foray into the genre of urban fantasy. I am trying a few new things with this, both in the genre and in my writing process. As far as genre goes, I am writing the story as if magic is really a scientific process that is poorly understood. Cause and effect are understood, but the "why" isn't. 

"Spells" are really just 'mathematical' equations that allow the magus to channel the "aether" in a specific way that gets a specific result. Basically, the magus "solves' the equation to get the desired result. I also wanted to avoid the trope of mysticism and such that most urban fantasy has. This is the normal world, just with a few new twists.

As far as my writing process goes, I am experimenting with just using a basic outline and a few character and world notes to pull it together. Rise to Revolt has tens of thousands of world building notes, I wanted to see how my writing process works with far more of a "pantser" approach. Hey I am still a struggling wannabe author, I am totally free to mix things up until I find out what works best for me :)

So far I am pretty pleased with how it is coming together, the outline is done and the world is coming together decently.

The working title is The Fae Wars: The Pyongyang Incursion

The story is set in 1978, and involves North Korea, the fae, King Oberon and Queen Titania, Altair 8800s and TRS-80s, and possibly a leisure suit, but I can reveal no more. :)

Anyhow, here is the just finished (very) rough draft of the first chapter for your perusal. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter One

The little cabin had been struck without warning, its inhabitants having no warning or time to flee. And even if they had been warned, they wouldn't have taken the warning seriously enough to flee or even give it a second thought.


After all, who would believe anybody who claimed that they were about to get attacked by fairies?


Special Agent Rafael Augustus Baker stood over the charred ruins of the cabin and grimly contemplated the partially visible carnage that gave mute testimony to what had happened. At least four bodies were visible in the half burned remnants of the cabin and although he couldn't see the cause of death from here, he knew better than to assume that they had been killed by the fire.


The fae didn’t work that way. They would have delighted in keeping their captives alive for as long as possible, and they were experts at prolonging human life to lengths that Beria would have envied.


The cabin was way out in the middle of nowhere, up near the Canadian border in the north west corner of Idaho. It had been built by a family who had been trying to live off the grid as much as possible. Or at least that was the only explanation that made any sense, given that the cabin was clearly lived in full time and had a number of outbuildings including a goat pen and a chicken house. The bodies of the animals that had resided in the outbuildings were also visible, the fae had, as always, been very thorough.


Given that they viewed humans and animals equally, it was no surprise to Rafael that nothing living had been spared. At least there hadn’t been any children present from what he could tell, that was a small blessing but one that he devoutly appreciated.

These cases were bad enough when children were involved.


He carefully paced around the cabin and the outbuildings, looking warily for any fae signs or tracks but found nothing. There was one more way to test that fact though. Holding his staff lengthways in front of him, raised to chest level, he closed his eyes and began to concentrate. The rush of the Aether that he always sensed dimly at the back of his mind abruptly strengthened as he opened himself to it. When he felt his body suffused with it, he focused it through his staff until the symbols on it began to glow softly.

Amplified by the mathmagical equations that were part of his personal staff’s repertoire, his senses stretched out but not even his enhanced capabilities could find any sign of the fae. They had probably been gone for at least a day, possible longer. At least presumably, there was always a chance that they were still around somewhere, but Rafael’s senses could only reach out a few hundred yards at best and even then, the fae were very good at hiding themselves from magic. 

Creatures of the Aether themselves, they were attuned to its subtle use in ways that few humans could match, although for sheer brute strength any moderately powerful mage could match them.

Going back to the cabin, he studied the ashes and the remains, without touching anything that would leave a trace of his presence behind, whether magical senses or mundane. Using both gloved hands he carefully picked up a charred pistol that had clearly done the cabin inhabitants no good, although it's empty chambers showed that someone had tried.

No, there was nothing for him to do here, his work was now going to be tracking down wherever the fae had headed to. He quietly murmured a prayer for the departed souls, then turning on one booted heel, he picked up the now mundane looking long wooden staff that he had leaned against the remnant of the cabin wall and started to retrace his steps back through the woods that grew up very close to the little home.

There was nothing else to see here and the fae were clearly no longer in the area.

Detaching his walkie-talkie from his belt, he pressed the transmit button. “This is” he grimaced slightly, “Gandalf calling Aragorn, come in, over.” Releasing the button, he waited to hear from his partner, and once again quietly contemplated strangling whatever Tolkien nerd in the CIA’s mage division had picked out the code words for this operation.

His walkie-talkie remained silent however, with nothing other than the hiss of background noise coming through it.

This was unfortunately, all too common as the thing’s range was limited to a handful of miles under the best circumstances, and given the varied terrain around him, was probably far less than that.

It would be nice if they would actually come up with someway of talking through those satellites that we have overhead, he thought, there has got to be a way to miniaturize a phone down to portable range that could tap into those communication lines that Langley undoubtedly has through them. I mean, this is 1978 for crying out loud, there are incredible things going on in the world of miniaturized electronics, and here I am stuck with aging World War 2 communications technology.


Finally giving up on the recalcitrant electronics for the time being, he continued his tramp through the woods. He had about three miles to cover on foot before he would get back to where his car was parked. The glorified mudhole that was the dirt road that ran most of the way to this isolated area had petered out well before the cabin. Since neither Rafael nor his partner Hank Forsythe (otherwise known as Aragorn) knew exactly where the cabin was, they had split up and each gone a separate direction.


I wish those wanne-be ‘Q’s at the Research branch in Langley would actually come up with something useful for a change, Rafael grumbled as he headed back through the woods. It’s all very well and good to know that fae are present in a given area. But when that area is over a hundred miles square, and cannot be tracked at all from their point of origin, it's an invention of only fleeting use.



Rafael would have been the first to admit that magical theory was not one of his strong suits.
That was one of the reasons why he was paired with someone who was an expert in magical theory. Hank Forsythe had multiple degrees in magical theory and was considered one of the top magus specialists that worked as a field agent. 

He also couldn’t do a lick of magic if his life depended on it. Which was yet another reason why he had been paired with Rafael. The two men didn’t have much in common besides their jobs, and weren’t close outside of work, but after five years of working together, they were considered one of the top teams in the CIA, which was why they had been paired up again once Rafael had finished his magus training at the Academy. 

As he emerged into an open meadow, Rafael paused to gather his bearings. He didn’t remember crossing this meadow on his way to the cabin. But he was positive that he had kept the sun at his back the whole way, and his route back had kept it in his face.


As he began to fully focus on his surroundings, he felt a slight tickle in the back of his mind. This didn’t bode well. There were a few things that could explain it, but the most logical was that another Aether weidler was in the vicinity. And...the sun was supposed to be on his back and yet he suddenly realized that he was feeling warmth on his face. 

There were few humans capable of subtle Aether wielding, but almost all fae were capable of it, and Rafael suddenly realized that he was in the middle of a featureless expanse of meadow with no sign of his partner. 

That last fact was no longer true, as Rafael’s boot suddenly came into contact with a soft yielding obstruction. Looking down, he recoiled instinctively, as he saw that he had just trodden on the outflung hand of his partner, the standard issue .38 revolver lying in the tall meadow grass a few feet away from the broken body of Hank Forsythe. 

“Oh no” Rafael whispered to himself. There was no time to do anything other than close his eyes momentarily in pain. Hank had been a good partner and although they had never been close in personal life, they had shared a close partnership in the field, as some of the few who knew and took part in the Fae overwatch. 

Opening his eyes, Rafael extended his senses and brought his staff to a guard position in front of him, its mathmagical equations already beginning to softly glow as he poured his will through them.
He knew he had only limited time to prepare himself. The fae were notoriously capricious and inhuman in their emotions, but they also were very human at times and one of the human traits they exhibited was a keen enjoyment in taking their time and savoring the moment when their prey was in their trap. 

And Rafael had no doubt that he was that prey and was firmly trapped. He had no place to run, the vehicle he had arrived in was miles away back the other direction, and his resources were limited to himself and his wits. 

As his staff reached its full Aether suffusion, he spared a thought for the mathmagical runes laboriously inscribed on it, and, not for the first time, fervently wished that he had put fewer defensive runes on it and had increased the offensive runes. But there were only so many mathmagical equations (or runes in common parlance) that could fit onto a staff, and Rafael preferred to focus on defensive ones foremost. 

As a magus of fairly moderate power, he preferred to avoid putting too much faith in Aether use and more faith in his wits. Plus, he had never actually engaged the fae directly, for obvious reasons there were no safe ways to do that at the Academy. 

As he abruptly sensed first one, then two, then (BLAST IT) three fae drop their aether camouflage and come towards him, two from in front and one from behind him, he sent up a quick prayer for protection and wisdom. This calmed his racing nerves down a bit, after all, none of this came as a surprise to God and his path here was predetermined in ages past. For whatever reason, he was supposed to be here. 

The fae halted about ten feet away from Rafael, the two in front and the one behind him. For a long moment they just examined each other. The fae were very humanlike, until you looked at them closely. 

Each fae stood well over six feet, and their proportions were just faintly off from human; their legs and arms just barely longer than normal, they faces slightly elongated over normal, their eyes larger and with strange looking pupils that were vertical looking, like a cat. 

Their bodies were covered with what looked like tatoos, but upon closer inspection were the overlapping sigils of aether runes. The fae were incapable of wielding aetheric energies with a focus such as the staff that human aether magus used, but could use ones on their living flesh very easily. 

They made no sign of combat, but Rafael could easily sense the aether permeating their bodies, held in readiness for whatever was about to happen. With his fallen partner’s body lying just feet away from where he stood, he looked the closest fae in the eye and prepared himself for what was surely about to come. 

One positive, at least there were no prying eyes to see what was about to happen. The Compact between magus, fae, and the various other aether wielders in the world was more of a guideline than a strict binding (other than when it came to the fae), but it was honored by and large out of sheer self preservation. Nobody wanted to stir up the forces that would be unleashed by the knowledge that many of the old tales of magic and fairies were real. 

As the moment stretched on, Rafael finally raised a sardonic eyebrow. 

“Well? Are we going to stare at each other all day, or are we going to have it out? You three are clearly in violation of the Compact, and have already spilled human blood. I doubt you waited for me so that you could apologize and beg to be taken back to King Oberon and Queen Titania for judgement and execution?” 

The foremost fae gave a smile that was all pointed teeth, “Mortal, what makes you think that they are ignorant of our mission here?” 

“The fact that all I see before me are three lower ranking fae. If the Monarchs of Faedom were going to breach the Contract so solemnly sworn to centuries ago, they would have sent far more powerful fae. Possibly even Puck himself.” Rafael’s jaw tightened as he kept his glance on the fae’s unearthly eyes. It was always dangerous to antagonize the fae, but at this point, he had nothing to lose. 

The elves muttered sibilant curses in their own glittering tongue. Rafael couldn’t follow more than a word here and there, but it was easy to grasp the thought from the tone and context. Translating fae-speech was Forsythe’s job, Rafael had never been much for grasping human languages, let alone fae languages. 

“Mortal, we asked not to be brought here, but brought here we were, by forces beyond our ken. Once here, we came across the cabin and the owner of it let fly at us with one of your confounded human firesticks. It angered us and so we disposed of him and his brood, as we had a perfect right to.”

  

“Right” Rafael said dryly, “you were of course planning to just ask him for some brownies and milk before being on your way back to your own land.” 

“Of course not. We are the fae and we are the rightful dominion holders of this world. The fact that our leaders signed a compact with your aged sage, Franklin, centuries past means little in the grand scheme of things. But we did not seek to break it deliberately.” 

“Be as that may be, you have transgressed the Compact by your actions. And what about my partner here” Rafael indicted the corpse, “did he deny you your...cookies and milk?” 

The fae’s faces all flushed angrily at his tone and words. 

“Hold your tongue mortal! We sensed you two coming and decided to have some fun with you both. He fell into our net first when you so foolishly split up. And now we have you...the final witness to what happened. Once we find out way back to our realm, neither Oberon nor Titania will care one whit for a few dead non-fae with no witnesses.” 

“So you say” Rafael responded evenly. There didn't seem to be much else to say and he didn't see any point in prolonging the converation. His only hope was to strike swiftly, and reduce the odds before the fae stuck back.

Abruptly he flashed into action, his heavy staff coming around in a powerful blow, even as he took a swift step backwards, spinning on his heel. The metal shod end of the staff whipped around and slammed into the fae that had been creeping up behind him. The fae’s head immediately deformed and split open under the blow, the fae falling back to the ground twitching and shaking as random nerve impulses raced through its body.

Rafael no longer had three opponents spread all around him, he had two, both of which were broadly in front of him. He spared a brief smile for the shocked fae, showing a confidence that he did not feel. He had guessed that the fae would be ready for an Aether attack, their instincts ran strongly against brute physical actions, as their weaker bodies were at a disadvantage against any in shape human male. 

“A clever stratagem magus” the lead fae said after a moment, “but clearly that one was weak and deserved to die.Let’s see how you fare against the full might of the fae.” Rafael had only a second to focus on the defensive equations on his staff, before the enraged fae struck. 

The fae slammed their hands together with eerie exactness and channeled aether bolts directly at Rafael. The stark blue bolts of pure aether were stopped a foot away from his body by a similarly colored blue nimbus that sprang from his staff and covered his front in a half dome shape. Its translucent shape rippled as the bolts slammed into it, but it held for the moment. 

Sweat popped out on Rafael’s forehead as he gritted his teeth and strained against the powerful blast. This wasn’t like training, these bolts were full power and if they got through his shield, would blast holes through him wherever they hit. 

But strangely, although he was sweating with the effort, the aether bolts did not seem to be as overwhelming as he had feared. In fact, as he focused more on it, the bolts seemed easier to get easier to resist. There was a symmetry to them he saw, an order that his conscious mind struggled to grasp but one that seemed to make intuitive sense. It was something he had never experienced before with his human aether combat instructors. 

But there was no time to think about that interesting fact right now, while his shields were holding up so far, he couldn’t keep this up indefinitely, and the fae had plenty of other ways to attack him that he might not be able to defend against so well. With a mental effort, he reached back across the aether to the foremost fae and thrust his non staff hand out, channeling an aetheric bolt towards the fae’s hands.

The aetheric energy rippled through the tall grass, leaving a smoking trail on the ground that zigzagged wildly as Rafael struggled to maintain his shield and keep the aetheric bolt on course, but maintained its general orientation. Apparently all of Rafael’s relentless training in aether control was...still a work in progress. The bolt however slammed into the fae’s lower torso and drove the fae screaming back into his partner, their usual graceful movements a jerky parody as the two fae fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. 

Before they could rise again, Rafael slammed his staff to the ground and channeled all of his focus through the primary offensive rune on his staff. It was a fairly simple fire rune, but with Rafael’s full focus behind it, it flared into orange light and a massive fireball exploded outwards towards the two fae. 

When it hit them, it began to interact with the aetheric energies they were in the midst of channeling in a way that Rafael had never seen before. The eerie orange fireball became suffused with blue energies from the fae’s defensive attempts and expanded massively in size. Abruptly Rafael realized what was happening and frantically put all of his remaining energy into a full body dome of aetheric protection. 

The fireball exploded over the meadow with a thunderclap of sound that send birds flying for miles. Rafael started to see gray creeping around his eyes as the fireball raced over his shield. He held on barely, but realized that his problems would multiply rapidly (but briefly) if the fireball persisted past the available oxygen trapped inside the small defensive bubble he was struggling to maintain.

He fell to his knees as his lungs labored for air. Then the air ran out entirely and the black spots he saw expanded to take up his entire vision. 

He fell unconscious and knew no more.